Horses, a first-person narrative horror game, was banned from the Epic Games Store just hours before it was set to launch on December 2nd. Then, a day after launch, the Humble store (temporarily) banned it as well. The decision shocked the developers at Santa Ragione, makers of the critically respected Saturnalia, as these storefronts were the homes they’d found for their game two years before it was preemptively banned from Steam.
Valve and Epic say Horses violates their sexual content policies. Humble hasn’t yet said why it banned the game.
This all happened because they had a literal child riding one of the naked adults on a lead and then wanted to play dumb. I dont agree with Steam practically controlling the PC market, but this one is a case of the developers stepping on their own rake and then turning around and saying “look what they’ve done to me!” I don’t know why this is such an unpopular opinion. But I digress. Because in actuality I would simply not buy the game, I don’t actually care if it is available on Steam, I’m just saying having a kid ride a naked adults shoulders is very obviously not going to pass their content checks.
And I would agree with you if that content were still in the game.
If they are disallowed on Steam, with no recourse, and Steam’s market share is 75%, this is the letter and verse WHY we have antitrust laws. They are the textbook definition of a monopoly.
If you burn someone like that, they aren’t going to accept do overs. “Sorry for what you perceived as CSAM” doesn’t work.
A monopoly giving zero recourse doesn’t work, either. It’s a shame, because I like steam for the most part.
A federated game distribution platform would be cool. Something no one can own. I dont think that will happen in our capitalist world. But I also dont think this particular problem would be solved by that.