{"id":503894,"date":"2025-10-16T10:19:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T10:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/503894\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T10:19:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T10:19:16","slug":"sony-strikes-back-at-tencents-horizon-rip-off-says-light-of-motiram-jeopardises-future-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/503894\/","title":{"rendered":"Sony Strikes Back at Tencent’s Horizon Rip-Off, Says Light of Motiram ‘Jeopardises’ Future Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sony<\/a>Image: Push Square<\/p>\n

The ongoing war of words between Sony and Tencent\u2019s well-imbursed legal teams continues, as the Japanese giant has hit back at the Chinese juggernaut over Horizon<\/a> knock-off Light of Motiram<\/a> again.<\/p>\n

You may recall that PlayStation sued the \u201cslavish clone\u201d earlier in the year<\/a>, claiming Tencent had pitched it on a mobile version of Horizon Zero Dawn<\/a>, which was rejected and later evolved into the copy-cat survival game.<\/p>\n

Tencent rejected Sony\u2019s case<\/a>, claiming it was suing the wrong entity and arguing that Horizon is not original in the slightest, and features \u201ctime-honoured tropes embraced by scores of other games\u201d including Far Cry<\/a> and The Legend of Zelda<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It said PlayStation is seeking an \u201cimpermissible monopoly on genre conventions\u201d, and asked for the case to be dismissed.<\/p>\n

Now the platform holder has struck back, calling Tencent\u2019s response \u201cnonsense\u201d as it works to get the game cancelled.<\/p>\n

In a 35-page document read by The Game Post<\/a>, the manufacturer noted that any claims of the game being incomplete don\u2019t hold up, as its release date changed to 2027 after Sony sued.<\/p>\n

It pointed out that despite changes to the game\u2019s Steam page<\/a>, which now show more generic artwork than before, promotional trailers still exist across YouTube and storefronts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe damage is done \u2013 and it continues,\u201d the company countered.<\/p>\n

The case adds:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cAlthough the public expressed confusion and outrage upon discovering Light of Motiram for the knock-off that it is, Tencent remained undeterred. Tencent continued promoting its infringing game over SIE\u2019s objection, and Tencent refused to accept any responsibility over its conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Sony has also accused Tencent of playing \u201ccorporate hide-and-seek\u201d with its various entities and subsidiaries in order to avoid responsibility.<\/p>\n

In its response, the Chinese firm argued PlayStation had actually sued the wrong company, as Tencent Holdings is simply a parent company unrelated to its various development studios et al.<\/p>\n

But it counters:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cTencent Holdings describes its own business as having a Games division that \u2018own[s] Aurora Studios\u2019 \u2013 the Light of Motiram development studio. Tencent Holdings reports all of its revenue and debt from games on its annual report without attribution to any subsidiary. And it uses the name Tencent to advertise its games, like Light of Motiram \u2013 without distinguishing between subsidiaries.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Sony says Light of Motiram ultimately \u201cjeopardises Horizon\u2019s continued success\u201d, and it also went on to show some of the similarities between the rip-off\u2019s protagonist and Aloy.<\/p>\n

It said the Horizon heroine has become a \u201cbrand identifier\u201d, and by using a similar character in Steam banners and website mastheads, it\u2019s created \u201cconfusion\u201d among consumers.<\/p>\n

The platform holder is now asking the courts to deny Tencent\u2019s motion to dismiss the case, and presumably then we\u2019ll move onto the next phase of all this.<\/p>\n

Which is to say, it doesn\u2019t seem like neither Sony nor Tencent is willing to budge right now, which means we could have a long and expensive legal battle ahead of us.<\/p>\n

[source thegamepost.com<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\n
Related Games<\/dt>\n
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See Also<\/dt>\n
\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

\"Sammy<\/p>\n

As the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He\u2019s an expert on PS Studios and industry matters, as well as sports games and simulators. He also enjoys RPGs when he has the time to dedicate to them, and is a bit of a gacha whale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image: Push Square The ongoing war of words between Sony and Tencent\u2019s well-imbursed legal teams continues, as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[9456,7900,118226,55,341,53,18066,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-503894","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-horizon","9":"tag-legal","10":"tag-light-of-motiram","11":"tag-ps5","12":"tag-sony","13":"tag-technology","14":"tag-tencent","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115383341824157575","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}