Steam was the first major storefront to refuse to carry Horses, a first-person psychological horror adventure about "the burden of familial trauma and puritan values, the dynamics of totalitarian power, and the ethics of personal responsibility" set on a ranch where nude human beings in horse masks are treated as livestock.

Publisher Santa Ragione said in November that Valve declined to carry Horses because it contained "content that appears, in our judgment, to depict sexual conduct involving a minor." Santa Ragione disputed that characterization, but an appeal was rejected and the ban stands.

Seems like it's treading a very fine line...

content that appears, in our judgment, to depict sexual conduct involving a minor

I'm assuming they don't mean a suggestive camera pan, but actually something problematic on screen, in which case, I totally support the ban. Devs were given the opportunity to change it, and they said no. Ban away imho. The fact that this is considered controversial is pretty disturbing to me.

Assuming the content is merely controversial and not objectionable (i.e. exploitative), it seems there may be room for an art-centric game store front.

Ironically, I'm betting it's nowhere near as exploitative as the monetization practices of virtually every AAA release these days.

The game company seems to have thought that they could drum up sales on other platforms by making this a media thing. Based on the additional platforms pulling out, it might have backfired. They could have let their little horse-porn game quietly release on every platform but Steam and made enough to get by. Instead they drew attention to themselves.

Since I'm getting down voted I have rewritten this comment for clarity.

I first heard of this game when it was being advertised on GOG as being "Banned by Steam"

Since it was only five dollars I bought it thinking Mastercard and Visa were up to their old shit again.

Later I found Steam banned it because they mistook a placeholder graphic for CSAM and had strict no second chances policies about that.

So now I am asking why did Epic ban it? Because now I'm worried I was hustled into buying kiddie porn by GOG disguising it as an anti-censorship protest.

Is it actually any good? I don't really play horror, but it mostly just looks odd in the trailer.

Wait, I thought this game was a depiction of what we subject horses to, using a horror lens to drive home the point? I've never heard of something less sexy?

Sounds like the gaming equivalent of the play "Equus".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equus_(play)

I can see why some would shy away from it, but banning it is the sort of thing that will keep gaming from becoming a unique art form. 😟