Sony Takes Legal Action Against Tencent Over Horizon-Like Game

Sony has filed a lawsuit against Chinese gaming giant Tencent, claiming that their upcoming game Light of Motiram copies too much from Sony’s popular Horizon video game series.

The lawsuit was filed in a California court last week. Sony says Light of Motiram looks almost exactly like their games Horizon: Zero Dawn and Horizon: Forbidden West. They’re calling it a “slavish clone” that steals their ideas and designs.

Both games share many similar features. Light of Motiram takes place in a world after an apocalypse, where giant robot dinosaurs roam around natural areas like forests, deserts, and snowy mountains. Humans live in tribes and have to fight these robot creatures to survive – just like in Horizon games.

The main characters also look very similar. Both games have red-haired women heroes who wear almost identical outfits and gear. Light of Motiram’s main character even has a device that looks just like Aloy’s earpiece from Horizon. The lawsuit says the games share “identical story and gameplay themes, cultural and character elements, art style, landscapes, architectural and art elements, color palettes, fonts, and symbols.”

According to Sony, Tencent knew exactly what they were doing. Sony claims that Tencent started making Light of Motiram in 2023, then approached Sony at a gaming conference in 2024 asking to license the Horizon brand to make their own official Horizon game. Sony said no. But Tencent kept working on Light of Motiram anyway. When Sony found out about the game and tried to solve the problem quietly, Tencent allegedly asked again to license Horizon. Sony refused again, but Tencent continued promoting and testing their game.

Sony is suing for copyright and trademark violations. They want the court to stop Tencent from copying their work and are asking for up to $150,000 in damages for each part of Horizon that was copied. They also want Tencent to give them all the copied materials so they can destroy them. Light of Motiram currently has a Steam page but doesn’t have a release date yet.

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