In brief: Tencent has hit back in the lawsuit over Horizon: Zero Dawn clone Light of Motiram. The Chinese firm says Sony is trying to claim ownership of gaming tropes that other titles have used for years. It's also arguing a lack of jurisdiction, is pointing to the game's 2027 release date, and claiming that Horizon itself is very similar to a game that preceded its release.
In July, Sony launched a lawsuit against Tencent over Light of Motiram, a game that looks so similar to the Horizon series that most people assumed it was a new franchise entry or DLC from Guerrilla Games.
Sony's suit describes Motiram as a "slavish clone" of the popular robot-dinosaur-fighting adventure games, which certainly appears to be an accurate accusation. It also alleges that Motiram copies everything from Horizon – mechanics, graphics, style, right down to an imitation of Aloy's Focus device.
Interestingly, the complaint revealed that Tencent pitched the idea of a game set in the Horizon universe at the 2024 Game Developers Conference, but it failed to mention that it started developing Light of Motiram in 2023. Sony rejected the idea, yet Tencent continued developing its imitator.
Now, Tencent has hit back. It says there's a lack of jurisdiction over China's Tencent Holdings – the parent of the company developing the game, which has yet to be served.
"Sony's threadbare, conclusory allegations improperly lump these Defendants together with the foreign companies alleged to be responsible for the core conduct at issue," Tencent said. "Sony's vague allegations against 'Tencent' or 'Defendants' generally cannot substantiate the claims it brings against Tencent America, Proxima Beta US, or Tencent Holdings specifically"
Tencent also argues that as Motiram isn't set for launch until the fourth quarter of 2027 – a window it only recently announced – so some or all of Sony's alleged infringements might not appear in the final release.
The Chinese tech giant also claims that Sony is trying to monopolize game genres and tropes that have been around for years and appear in many titles. It notes that Horizon Lead Artist Jan-Bart van Beek revealed in a NoClip documentary that the game was initially paused because of its similarity to 2013's Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.
"Enslaved basically featured a post-apocalyptic world, a female protagonist, machines that were slumbering that would be awakened," van Beek said. "So, I myself went to Hermen and I said like, I don't think we should do this, it touches too much of these other points. And Hermen, he sort of was very reluctant. He said like okay, well, I think it's a bad idea to do this, but you know, we'll can it for now and maybe we'll look at it later."
Guerrilla then set about making a steampunk-style shooter but the developer didn't realize another studio, Ready at Dawn, was doing the same with The Order: 1886, so the Horizon pitch got the green light.
"By suing over an unreleased project that merely employs the same time-honored tropes embraced by scores of other games released both before and after Horizon – like Enslaved, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Far Cry: Primal, Far Cry: New Dawn, Outer Wilds, Biomutant, and many more – Sony seeks an impermissible monopoly on genre conventions," Tencent said.
While it's true that you can't copyright a genre, Horizon and Motiram are often indistinguishable based on the latter's trailers.
In addition to adding a release window to its Steam page, there have been other changes made to Light of Motiram's listing on the platform. Most noticeable is the lack of the Aloy-like red-haired female player character, and most images of the mechanical creatures have been removed.
Sony is suing for copyright and trademark infringement, as well as false designation of origin. It is asking the court to forbid Tencent from infringing its copyright, to award damages of up to $150,000 per infringing work in the Horizon franchise, and to require Tencent to surrender all infringing materials for destruction.
