Light of Motiram delayed with marketing materials altered following Sony copyright infringement lawsuit

Light of Motiram, Polaris Quest and Tencent’s upcoming sci-fi MMO, which appeared to take not a small amount of aesthetic inspiration from Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, has been delayed following a recent copyright infringement lawsuit from Sony. Furthermore, the game’s Steam store page has been…conveniently altered, changing much of the wording and removing some screenshots which looked particularly similar to the Horizon games.

According to the original Light of Motiram Steam store page description (as per the Internet Archive), it referred to “a world overrun by colossal machines” and that players must “survive with mechanimals” in a “primative age“. What we have now seems far less like the “slavish clone” of the Horizon games that Sony complained about in its lawsuit. The new page has scrubbed all mention of mechanimals, instead reading much more like a more generic survival MMO, stating that “where civilization is a distant memory, primal cultures, extreme weather, will constantly test your survival skills. Make smart use of everything around you to stay alive and face off against formidable bosses, every step is fraught with danger and requires courage. Only by overcoming the challenges of survival can you carve out a place for yourself in this unforgiving land.” The new Steam store page has also notably removed several screenshots, particularly most of the ones involving characters fighting mechanimals. The announcement trailer for Light of Motiram has vanished from both Steam and the game’s YouTube channel.

It seems that Polaris Quest and Tencent are doing more than simply rethinking Light of Motiram’s marketing strategy, however. The game was originally set to come out late 2025. This release window has now been revised to Q4 2027! A two year delay likely indicates that the game is being redesigned to make it much more distinct from the Horizon games, removing the mechanimals entirely from the sounds of it.

Will this be enough to spare Light of Motiram from being snuffed out in a deluge of litigation? Only time will tell; we will have to wait and see if this is enough for Sony to drop the suit, or if further changes to the game will be required to keep the plaintiff satisfied.