Overview
- Epic reiterated that Horses violated its Inappropriate Content and Hateful or Abusive Content policies and that a secondary internal IARC questionnaire yielded an Adults Only rating, which the store does not accept.
- Epic said it could not provide an AO certificate because its questionnaire was not an official submission, adding that it shared policy context with the studio, reviewed an appeal, and upheld the removal.
- Santa Ragione countered that Epic made provably incorrect statements about the game, withheld details, failed to share the claimed AO documentation, and has effectively ghosted the team.
- Horses remains on GOG, Humble, and itch.io, with the developer pointing to full walkthroughs on YouTube and Twitch as evidence the AO judgment was misapplied.
- The game was delisted from Epic a day before launch after a prior Steam refusal, and while sales topped 18,000 copies and covered loans and royalties, the studio says it has paused operations and sought other work.