Sony is suing Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent for copyright infringement in California federal court over upcoming game Light of Motiram and its similarities with Sony’s Horizon video game series.
In the lawsuit, detailed by Reuters, Sony refers to Light of Motiram as a “slavish clone” of games Horizon: Zero Dawn and Horizon: Forbidden West. Sony also alleges that Tencent previously offered to collaborate with Sony on a Horizon spin-off in March of 2024 that would include open-world survival crafting gameplay elements. It rejected the offer and Light of Motiram, which has reportedly been in development since 2023, was revealed in November of 2024.
Sony says that it has had ongoing discussions with Tencent about the title to informally try and resolve its copyright concerns, during which Tencent reportedly sought to licence Horizon again, which Sony again declined. The lawsuit asks for an unspecified amount of monetary damages and an order blocking Tencent from violating its intellectual property rights. Light of Motiram is yet to receive an official release date.
It is unclear how this lawsuit is likely to end up. While copyright infringement can often be a high bar to clear, considering the very strong visual similarities alone, it is hard for the average gamer not to draw comparisons. We will have to wait and see how this turns out as the lawsuit progresses. This is the second high-profile videogame copyright lawsuit to be tabled in recent years, following Nintendo’s infringement lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair which was first announced last year.
About the Author
Cass Barkman
she/they
Cass is a lecturer in Media and Communications at The University of Melbourne with a personal/academic love for experimental narrative videogames, complex cinema and having a little nap.
