Sony files lawsuit against Tencent accusing it of ripping off the Horizon franchise with Light of Motiram

Sony has filed a lawsuit against Chinese tech giant Tencent, accusing it of copying its Horizon franchise with its game Light of Motiram.

The details:

• Last year, Tencent unveiled Light of Motiram, an open-world survival game set in a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by animal-like robots, immediately causing many to draw comparisons to Sony’s hit Horizon franchise.
• As reported by Reuters, Sony has also seen the striking similarities and has filed a lawsuit in California accusing Tencent of copyright and trademark infringement, referring to the title as a “slavish clone” of Horizon. In the filing, Sony highlights several similarities between the two games, stating that Light of Motiram also features a “young, red-headed female protagonist and tribal groups fighting for survival among large robotic animals in a post-apocalyptic world.”
• The lawsuit has also revealed a timeline of the game’s development, claiming that Tencent began working on Light of Motiram in 2023 before approaching Sony to pitch the game as a possible Horizon title. Sony turned down the pitch, leaving Tencent to continue developing the game, with Sony then reaching out following its reveal to attempt to solve a copyright dispute behind the scenes, which resulted in another failed pitch for Tencent.
• The filing features several screenshots of Light of Motiram’s promotional material as well as comments from the public comparing the game to Horizon. "Not only does it look like a copy of the Horizon games, but you had the cheek to copy the cover art as well,” one comment reads.

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