dailynewsnblog
UPDATE 6.46pm: In a statement to Eurogamer, Epic Games’ senior communications manager, Brian Sharon, wrote:
“Our team played the game and found it violated the Epic Games Store’s Content Guidelines, specifically the ‘Inappropriate Content’ and ‘Hateful or Abusive Content’ policies. We did a secondary check by filling out the ratings questionnaire for the game ourselves and the content got an Adults Only (AO) rating – which we do not allow on the Store. Because this wasn’t an official submission, we do not have a certificate to share with the team. We did give the developers context around the policies they violated. When they appealed, we reviewed the content again, and let them know the decision was appropriately applied and will remain in place.”
Original story follows.
Original story: Horses developer Santa Ragione has responded to comments from an Epic Games Store executive claiming he “made provably incorrect statements about the game’s content”.
Posting the statement online over the weekend, Santa Ragione refuted claims that Epic Games Store “love” the studio, alleging the storefront had “ghosted” it when it withdrew support for its controversial horror game at the end of last year.
Santa Ragione’s Horses was, of course, the subject of multiple headlines ahead of its release as Steam refused to distribute the game. Then, just before its release, it was also banned from the Epic storefront. This all put the studio into jeopardy, with founder Pietro Righi Riva telling Eurogamer it could face closure if Horses didn’t sell well.
Santa Ragione claimed that it had received notification from Epic 24 hours before Horses’ release, explaining it would no longer distribute the game after its “review found violations of the Epic Games Store Content Guidelines”. Epic’s email specifically referenced its policies around “inappropriate content” and “hateful or abusive content”, saying Horses contravenes guidelines prohibiting content that “promotes abuse and animal abuse”, and “contains explicit or frequent depictions of sexual behaviour or [that is] not appropriately labeled, rated, or age-gated”.
On this latter point, Epic said it had filled out an IARC Questionnaire based on the content it reviewed, receiving an Adult Only (AO) rating – a rating category it does not distribute on its storefront.
Earlier this week, however, Epic VP Steve Allison told Game File in an interview, “We love [Santa Ragione] [… but the studio’s] answers were just different than… some of the moderators’ were after they played through the game”.
“Our time on this topic was limited, but it seems news of the Steam ban triggered an Epic review of the rating, which is usually produced via a self-reported submission to a ratings coalition,” Game File’s Stephen Totilo later clarified on social media.
Epic made provably incorrect statements about the game’s content, refused to provide details supporting their claims, and has not shared their claimed AO IARC certificate, which normally includes a link for the developer to appeal. They do not ‘love that studio’, they have effectively ghosted us
[image or embed]
— Santa Ragione (@santaragione.com) February 7, 2026 at 11:44 AM
“Epic made provably incorrect statements about the game’s content, refused to provide details supporting their claims, and has not shared their claimed AO IARC certificate, which normally includes a link for the developer to appeal,” the studio said in response. “They do not ‘love that studio’, they have effectively ghosted us.
“The fact that the game does not deserve an AO rating is apparent from the widely available full walkthroughs on YouTube and Twitch, as well as from its distribution on the Humble Store,” the studio added.
Despite the issues distributing Horses, Santa Ragione has generated enough to repay the loans it took out in order to finish developing the game, as well as the royalties owed to Horses creator Andrea Lucco Borlera.
