Sony Interactive Entertainment has filed a lawsuit against the Chinese technology company Tencent for copyright and trademark infringement for its upcoming video game, Light of Motiram.
The lawsuit, submitted on July 25 in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that Tencent's still-unreleased game is a ‘slavish clone’ of Sony's successful Horizon franchise, specifically Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West.
As per Sony, Light of Motiram not only copies Horizon's visual and thematic content but also borrows its fundamental character design and game aspects. The game fools players into believing it's an official title in the Horizon franchise.
Tencent claims Light of Motiram is an open-world game in which users navigate a dystopian world. Here, machines predominate, advanced technologies, and train machines known as ‘Mechanimals’ in an attempt to battle boss-level foes.
The promotional tagline for the game is ‘In a world overrun by colossal machines’. It closely resembles Sony's definition of Horizon, a post-apocalyptic setting where mechanical creatures inhabit the planet and tribal humans battle to survive.
The Sony-Horizon lawsuit shows that this is not just a coincidence. According to the complaint, Tencent's copying includes the protagonist's appearance and attire, game worlds, and even the tone of the story. It’s so similar that online gamers have testified to the similarity as ‘crazy’ and ‘shameless.’
The complaint further points out that Tencent employed an Aloy clone in promotional materials, adding to consumer confusion.
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Sony asks for statutory damages of as much as $150,000 per infringed work, equivalent to losses incurred because of Tencent's imputed copyright infringement. The maker of PlayStation is also asking for a court injunction to prevent Light of Motiram from coming out in its present form.
To date, Tencent has not issued a public statement reacting to the lawsuit. The company has not even announced when it will release Light of Motiram, but it is already available in digital stores like Steam and Epic Games.
Law experts argue that this case may establish a new precedent for the extent to which game studios fight over intellectual property, particularly as graphics and mechanics become more advanced and easier to copy. For now, the gaming community holds its breath to see whether or not Tencent will change its game, fight it in court, or quietly abandon it.
With both companies being major players in the global gaming industry, the outcome of this dispute may resonate throughout the sector. It might determine how closely similar games can resemble before crossing legal boundaries.