Sony Rejected Tencent’s Offer to Make a Horizon Game, So the Chinese Company Made Their Own and Is Now Getting Sued
Back in November 2024, Tencent announced Light of Motiram, an open-world survival crafting game featuring a red-haired female character wielding a bow in the art, with gameplay showcasing robotic beasts that players would fight against. If that sounds familiar, then you’re not alone, as the game bears a striking resemblance to that of Sony’s own PlayStation IP, Horizon.
It seems that Sony didn’t take too kindly to this announcement, as it has been revealed that they’re now suing Tencent over the new IP, calling it a “slavish clone” of Horizon.
Tencent’s Horizon “Ripoff” Might Have Been Born Out of Rejection
As reported by Reuters, Tencent is being sued by Sony over their upcoming Light of Motiram game. While mechanically, the game functions differently from Horizon, as it places a heavy focus on the open-world survival aspects, including gathering and building structures, along with teaming up with other players to take down large mechanical beasts, it seems Sony believes Tencent has ripped off their Horizon series.
But this is not without a good reason. Beyond the obvious similarities between the characters and monsters, Sony’s filing states that Tencent approached them to collaborate on a new Horizon game last year (2024), but the proposal was rejected. And well, if you can’t join them, then build it yourself is what Tencent ended up having in mind, and months later, they announced Light of Motiram.
Sony claims in the filing that Light of Motiram shares identical gameplay, story themes, and artistic elements from the Horizon series, and has asked the court to award an unspecified amount of monetary damages, as well as an order prohibiting Tencent from infringing on its intellectual property rights.
We honestly can’t say we’re surprised by the news, as many other outlets and community members had assumed this was going to happen, especially since Sony has their own online Horizon game in development. Now, whether Sony has a case against Tencent is up to the courts to decide.
For now, Light of Motiram has no release date, though it is expected to arrive on PC, PlayStation 5, iOS, and Android.
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Damn, Sony really thinks Horizon is their bread and butter. It’s mediocre trash that is boring and clunky. I would like to see another studio take a stab at the premise since it has so much potential. I don’t get why Sony thinks Horizon needs a movie, tv series, spinoffs and lego stuff. Nobody really likes the series, it doesn’t sell well at all. But they just keep cramming it in our faces asking DO YOU LIKE IT YET!?
WTF are you huffing? Horizon has sold over 38 million copies. The series is incredibly popular and those sales numbers shit all over the vast majority of video games.