Sony sues Tencent over "copy" of Horizon in Light of Motiram game

Sony has filed a lawsuit against Tencent, attempting to halt the release of the game Light of Motiram. They claim that the game is a "blatant copy" of their Horizon game series. The information was reported by Reuters. Light of Motiram was announced last year with a trailer that closely resembles the aesthetics of Horizon — featuring large robotic animals and a font similar to the franchise's title.

In the lawsuit, Sony asserts that Tencent illegally copied protected audiovisual elements from Horizon and intentionally used a similar trademark, violating copyright and trademark laws. They demand an immediate cessation of the distribution of Light of Motiram. Reports indicate that Tencent began developing the game in 2023. At the Game Developers Conference in March 2024, Tencent allegedly offered Sony a licensing agreement for its subsidiary Aurora Studios to create a sequel to Horizon, but Sony declined.

Sony notes that Tencent was undeterred by the refusal and continued to work on the project. According to information on the game's Steam page, the developer and publisher of Light of Motiram is Polaris Quest. In the lawsuit, Sony claims that Tencent Shanghai operates under the names "Aurora Studios" and/or "Polaris Quest." Meanwhile, Sony reports that it was negotiating with Tencent for an informal resolution of the intellectual property infringement issue, but Tencent again sought to obtain a license for the Horizon IP. Sony clearly rejected this and demanded the cessation of the game.

As of the time of writing, Tencent has not provided any comments. This is not the first similar case: last year, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed a lawsuit against the developer of Palworld, Pocketpair, for patent infringement. As a result, some features from the game were removed.