PlayStation maker Sony is suing Tencent for allegedly ripping off its Horizon video game franchise.
Towards the end of last year, Tencent development studio Polaris Quest revealed Light of Motiram, a post-apocalyptic open-world survival crafting game with mechanised animal-like creatures which looked remarkably similar to Guerrilla and PlayStation’s Horizon series.
Now, Sony is suing Tencent for copyright and trademark infringement in California federal court, calling Light of Motiram a “slavish clone” of the Horizon games.
The complaint by Sony alleges Tencent’s Light of Motiram is unlawfully similar to both Horizon Zero Dawn, which was originally released in 2017, and its sequel Forbidden West, which came out in 2022. Not only that, the filing revealed that Tencent began working on Light of Motiram in 2023, before it approached Sony in 2024 with a pitch to create its own Horizon game in collaboration with the PlayStation maker. However, when Sony rejected this proposition, Tencent “continued secretly developing Light of Motiram”, before announcing its game later that year.
Allegedly, Sony approached Tencent informally to resolve the copyright dispute once it became aware of Light of Motiram’s existence. However, Sony said when it approached Tencent about the issue, Tencent once again tried to obtain a licence to use Horizon assets, which Sony again declined. Tencent then continued on regardless.
“Sony is thus forced to file this action and seek judicial relief to protect its valuable and hard-earned intellectual property rights in the Horizon franchise,” the complaint reads.
Sony’s complaint states Tencent’s promotional materials including trailers and screenshots for Light of Motiram “misappropriated protectable elements of [Sony Interactive Entertainment’s] copyrights in the Horizon franchise” to a “significant degree”. This includes gameplay, story themes, characters, landscapes and other artistic elements. Sony noted the music used to promote Light of Motiram is also “highly similar” to Horizon’s own.
The complaint goes on to additionally cite community comments as well as various headlines from websites, which all point out the striking similarities between Light of Motiram and the Horizon games. One screenshotted comment from Light of Motiram’s Steam page shared within the complaint reads: “Not only does it look like a copy of the Horizon games, but you had the cheek to copy the cover art as well.”
Sony says Tencent has “confused” consumers with its promotional material, with many assuming Light of Motiram is affiliated with the Horizon series. Sony additionally shared several examples showing just how similar Light of Motiram’s promotional material is to Horizon. You can see some of the shared examples below.
Eurogamer has asked Tencent for comment on Sony’s complaint. At the time of writing, Light of Motiram’s Steam page remains active.
As for Horizon, earlier this year Sony announced an upcoming film adaptation of Guerrilla’s games.