Controversial horror recreation Horses will get kicked off the Humble Retailer sooner or later after launch, but it surely’s additionally turn out to be the best-selling new launch on GOG and Itch.io

The saga of Horses has taken one other surprising twist because the Humble Retailer, which only a couple days in the past affirmed that it will carry the sport as a DRM-free obtain regardless of its ban on Steam and Epic, has now apparently stopped promoting it.

Steam was the primary main storefront to refuse to hold Horses, a first-person psychological horror journey about “the burden of familial trauma and puritan values, the dynamics of totalitarian energy, and the ethics of non-public accountability” set on a ranch the place nude human beings in horse masks are handled as livestock.

Writer Santa Ragione mentioned in November that Valve declined to hold Horses as a result of it contained “content material that seems, in our judgment, to depict sexual conduct involving a minor.” Santa Ragione disputed that characterization, however an enchantment was rejected and the ban stands.

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The Epic Video games Retailer adopted with its personal ban on December 1, sooner or later earlier than Horses was set to launch. Which brings us, not directly, to the Humble Retailer: In an e-mail despatched to PC Gamer following the Epic ban, Santa Ragione mentioned the Humble Retailer had confirmed that it will proceed to hold the sport. Humble was initially going to promote Epic retailer keys for Horses, however with Epic not promoting it, Humble was as a substitute providing a DRM-free launch for direct obtain.

Right this moment, nonetheless, it is gone: The shop web page, beforehand at humblebundle.com/retailer/horses, has been fully faraway from the Humble Retailer, with out warning or clarification. A Santa Ragione rep confirmed with PC Gamer that Humble did have the DRM-free model of Horses up on the market yesterday when the sport launched, however mentioned they don’t know why it is gone now. The writer has reached out to Humble to inquire, however as of now has not acquired any response.

That leaves Horses out there on the market on GOG and Itch.io: Completely high-quality storefronts, however a big discount within the recreation’s general visibility. Making the matter much more irritating is the truth that Horses is seemingly fairly good—or at the least, it accomplishes what it units out to do. The content material is decidedly uncomfortable however critiques and reactions on social media are largely optimistic: By all outward appearances (and I have never performed it myself so I can not choose past that, however I am speaking about reactions from respected gaming websites right here), Horses shouldn’t be low-effort, throwaway trash, however reasonably a recreation that genuinely seeks to impress consideration and conversations.

The one upside for Santa Ragione is that the widespread bans could also be drawing extra consideration to Horses than it will have had with an everyday, uninterrupted launch, as a result of the place it stays out there, it is doing fairly effectively: It is at present the top-selling new launch on GOG. Frankly, I hope the nice previous storefront makes a tidy bundle on it.

It is also at present sitting atop the best-selling video games chart on Itch.io. (Observe that you will have to have grownup content material enabled in your Itch.io account to be able to see it within the listing.)

In order that’s somewhat bit of fine amidst the dangerous, at the least. I’ve reached out to the Humble Retailer for remark and can replace if I obtain a reply.

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