Santa Ragione’s surreal horror title Horses, which was banned on Steam and the Epic Games Store, has begun recouping its development costs after selling 30,000 copies worldwide and generating $100,000 in revenue.
In an email sent to Game Developer, Santa Ragione co-founder and studio director Pietro Righi Riva explained the Italian company doesn’t have enough cash to kickstart production on another project but has managed to successfully pay back its private investors.
“For anyone curious about where that went: of the $100k, $30k went to the game’s director, Andrea Lucco Borlera, who spent years working on it in his own time, and $62k went to the game’s private funders, covering their $50k investment and providing a return,” said Riva. “That leaves $8k for Santa Ragione. It isn’t enough to begin anything new, but it’s a start toward recouping our $50k in development costs.”
Santa Ragione previously said it was facing closure after Horses was banned from Steam over content platform owner Valve described as concerning. After Epic also decided to block Horses from launching on the Epic Game Store, the title eventually made its debut on Itch.io, GOG, and the Humble Store.
Horses went on to win multiple awards including the 2026 IGF Nuovo Award and Best Experience at the Italian Video Game Awards.
Riva said he is “eternally grateful” to everybody who supported the studio over the years and hopes the difficulties surrounding the distribution of Horses sparked important conversations around censorship.
“Horses uses grotesque, subversive imagery to confront power, faith, and violence. We reject subjective obscenity standards and believe this kind of moralizing censorship evokes a darker past in which vague notions of ‘decency’ were used to silence artists. Games are an artistic medium and lawful works for adults should remain accessible,” said Santa Ragione in a statement when Horses was banned on Steam.
“We respect players enough to present the game as intended and to let adults choose what to play; lawful works should not be made unreachable by a monopolistic storefront’s opaque decisions.”
The final update for Horses was rolled out this week and brings Japanese, Korean, Spanish, German, French, and Russian language support.