Reddit users have „no sympathy” for this indie studio after their game was banned from Steam

Over the last few days, news has broken about an indie game studio that has been imperiled by a Steam ban, but many users on Reddit have no sympathy for them. The studio in question is Santa Ragione, based in Italy. You may have heard of some of their previous games, such as the visual novel Mediterranea Inferno or the survival horror Saturnalia. The game that has been banned is one they’ve reportedly been working on for 2 years and already invested at least $100,000 in development, and now a Steam ban will make that investment near impossible to recover, putting the studio in jeopardy. According to a recent survey, 72% of developers agree that Steam is a monopoly. Without access to this large user base, it is often difficult for developers to find significant success on other platforms. it can be a major financial blow to a small studio. The story was reported on by GamesRadar, and when it was shared on Reddit, the general response was “good.”

Reddit users have no sympathy for indie studio after its game was banned from Steam

The banned game is called Horses. Apparently, when it was sent to Valve for approval on Steam in 2023, Valve replied with a strange request. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, the studio’s co-founder, Pietro Righi Riva, explained that Valve asked to play the entire game before they could approve the page. Riva described it as “something that’s never happened to us before.” At the time, according to Riva, the game “wasn’t even halfway finished.” But given no other option from Steam, Santa Ragione focused their efforts and quickly scrambled together a “complete” version of the game for Valve to review.

But after more radio silence from Steam, with Riva emailing asking for an update, the team got an automated message one day before the game announcement, explaining that it would not be approved for distribution. Santa Ragione shared the message on their website, which explains the ban by saying, “…we found that this title features themes, imagery, or descriptions that we won’t distribute. Regardless of a developer’s intentions with the product, we will not distribute content that appears, in our judgment, to depict sexual content involving a minor.” According to statements shared by Riva, the studio was willing and open to make changes, but “were refused any detail, review, or guidance on what to change or remove.”

Instead, the studio ended up guessing about what Valve had issues with. The primary suspect was a scene in which a “horse,” visually a naked adult woman, carries a young female child on her back. The scene has since been changed to turn the child into an adult, but even with years of follow-up, Valve has apparently refused to budge on the issue, even as many other PC platforms, like Epic Games, GOG, and Humble, have approved the game. This initial ban occurred well before this year’s NSFW controversy with payment processors, so while it may be a factor in Valve not changing their minds now, it at least was not a factor in the initial ban.

Comments from users reacting to the story.Source: Reddit

The GamesRadar story was shared on Reddit, and users were quick to support the ban. The top comment attacks the studio for supposedly being “acclaimed,” pointing out low Steam player counts and writing, “I’m fine with this.” A response to that comment adds: “These Valve hit pieces are desperate,” accusing the story of being nothing but an attempt to make Valve and Steam look bad. Other users wrote “good,” “no sympathy,” or “and nothing of value was lost.”

Steam and Valve are perfectly within their rights to ban any game. They are under no obligation to host any game on their platform if they deem it unfit. But some users do agree that Valve could have been clearer and more transparent in its communications, even though they still believe this instance should have resulted in a ban. The lack of clear guidelines and regulations will only lead developers to take fewer risks and censor themselves. The risk of being kicked off the largest PC gaming platform is not worth taking, especially for small, independent studios that live and die by each game release.

Horses

December 2, 2025

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