Sony Sues Tencent Over Horizon-Inspired Game Light of Motiram

Sony is suing Tencent, alleging its upcoming game Light of Motiram is 'a slavish clone of SIE's...Horizon series of video games.'

The complaint, which was filed in a California court last week, alleges that Tencent's upcoming adventure game Light of Motiram is illegally similar to Horizon: Forbidden West and Horizon: Zero Dawn in everything from creature design to protagonist to marketing materials. The complaint outlines numerous similarities, comparing various marketing screenshots from both games as well as the game descriptions.

Like Horizon, Light of Motiram takes place in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by giant robot dinosaurs who roam large, natural environments such as tropical forests, deserts, and snowy mountains. Humans, just like in Horizon, live in tribal groups and must fight the machine animals, who also largely line up with those in Horizon, to survive. Both games even feature red-haired women protagonists that wear very similar outfits and styles, and Motiram even has its lead sporting a device awfully similar to Aloy's 'Focus' earpiece.

A comparison between the two games' marketing imagery, as shared in Sony's complaint.

The complaint also cites headlines from a number of gaming websites, including Kotaku, TheGamer, and GameRant, as well as various Steam and Reddit comments, that all remark on the similarities between the two games and the likelihood that Sony would probably sue over the issue.

'The commonalities with Horizon disclosed in the Light of Motiram promotional game trailer and other promotional materials included not only identical story and gameplay themes, cultural, and character elements, but also art style, landscapes, architectural and art elements, color palettes, fonts, and symbols. Lighting and points of view are also highly similar,' the complaint reads.

Also per Sony's complaint, Tencent allegedly knew exactly what it was doing here. Sony says that Tencent began developing Light of Motiram in 2023, and approached Sony at the 2024 Game Developers Conference to ask for a licensing deal to develop its own Horizon game. Sony turned Tencent down. But Tencent kept developing Light of Motiram anyway. Sony also claims it approached Tencent informally to resolve the copyright dispute once it became aware of the game, but when it did so, Sony says Tencent tried once again to license Horizon. Sony once again refused, and Tencent allegedly moved forward with the game's promotions and playtests.

Sony is suing Tencent for copyright and trademark infringement, as well as false designation of origin. It's asking the court to permanently enjoing Tencent from infringing its copyright, for costs and damages of up to $150,000 for each separate work in Horizon that's been infringed, and demands that Tencent deliver all infringing materials to Sony for destruction.

Meanwhile, Light of Motiram has a Steam listing, but no release date just yet.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].