Sony Interactive Entertainment has
filed a lawsuit over its upcoming game Light of Motiram, with Sony saying it is a “slavish clone” of the Horizon series, GameSpot reported.
The suit, which was filed on July 25 in California and was seen by GameSpot, sees Sony going after Tencent for copyright and trademark infringement, with Sony demanding a trial by jury. Sony said it was trying to prevent the release of Light of Mortram.
“Tencent’s copying of Horizon is so blatant that the public has described it as ‘crazy,” ‘insane,’ and ‘shameless,” Sony said in the lawsuit.
Sony said Tencent is “deliberately causing numerous game lover to confuse Light of Motriam as the next game in the Horizon series” by way of Tencent promoting it with a “rip-off” of Horizon’s Aloy character.
Tencent’s conduct “has caused and is causing irreparable injury to SIE” the company said. Sony is seeking statutory damages of up to $150,000 for “each separate work in the Horizon franchise infringed,” as well as for Tencent to deliver SIE’s lawyers all products and marketing bearing what it clams to be are “prohibited marks” so Sony’s team can destroy them.”
RockPaperShotgun reported: Horizon Zero Dawn/Forbidden West publishers Sony have called in the lawyers over Tencent’s upcoming Light of Motriam, arguing in a lawsuit filing (spotted by Reuters) that the post-apocalyptic action adventure looks a little too much like their post-apocalyptic action adventure.
The case alleges that Light of Motriam, currently in development at Tencent subsidiary Polaris Quest, alleges that Light of Motriam, currently in development at Tencent subsidiary Polaris Quest, is a “slavish clone” of Guerrilla Games’ original series, and seeks to block its release on copyright infringement grounds.
Sony’s complaint also claims that Tencent approached them in 2024, supposedly with work on Light of Motriam already underway, and unsuccessfully pitched the Japanese publishing giant with a plan to produce a new, official Horizon game under license. The suggestion that Tencent knowingly created a game they intended as a direct spinoff or sequel, then continued with it anyway after failing to win Sony’s agreement.
VideoGamesChronical reported: As initially reported by Reuters, Sony has filed a lawsuit in California federal court alleging that copyright and trademark infringement, and claiming that the game is so close to Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West that players could be confused into thinking it’s part of the same series.
The suit also alleges that, after starting work on Light of Motiram, Tencent then asked Sony if it wanted to collaborate on a new Horizon game, to which Sony declined. Sony claims that Tencent went ahead and made a Horizon-like game anyway.
“Upon information and belief, sometime in 2023 (and unbeknownst to Sony) Tencent developed a video game called Light of Motriam which — just like Horizon – featuring a young, red-headed female protagonist and tribal groups fighting for survival among large robotic animals in a post-apocalyptic world.” the document says.