In a move many of us probably saw coming from miles away, Sony is suing Tencent for copyright infringement of its Horizon IP. The Japanese electronics giant and owner of PlayStation says that Tencent’s clone, Light of Motiram, looks virtually identical in more ways than one.
Tencent first announced Light of Motiram back in November last year, and it invited scrutiny from gamers about how closely it resembled Guerilla Games’ work.
Sony’s lawsuit is in-depth, describing how the Tencent’s IP was a carbon copy, stealing not one, but two Horizon IPs: Zero Dawn and Lego Adventures. Everything, from the art style, right down to the game’s premise of a post-apocalyptic world, where men and machine coexist. That list also includes the gameplay mechanics, including foraging and hunting animal-styled machines in packs. In fact, the multiplayer aspect may be the only thing that it has going for it.
But the smoking gun for Sony and the lawsuit is its claim that Tencent had tried to license the Horizon IP, well before it even announced Light of Motiram. The company alleges that the Chinese conglomerate proposed licensing the IP, in order to create a game with “Eastern aesthetics” and elements like “survival and crafting, pet taming, [multiplayer game modes], etc.”
Sony rejected the offer but Tencent went ahead with the announcement of Light of Motiram anyway, along with assets that the Japanese brand alleges are “slavish clones” of its own.
Ultimately, Sony wants the US court, where it filed the lawsuit, to issue an injunction to prevent Tencent from continuing development or release the game, plus damages and the total destruction of anything related to Light of Motiram. With that, it’s now Tencent’s serve, and it looks like the company will be facing an uphill battle.
