Late last year, players noted that images of Tencent’s upcoming game, Light of Motiram, had a very striking resemblance to Sony’s Horizon games. Sony noticed as well and subsequently filed a lawsuit against Tencent. Now, Tencent is arguing that Sony’s lawsuit has no merit and that the case against it should be dismissed.
According to The Game Post, Tencent’s motion to dismiss accuses Sony of attempting to “fence off a well-trodden corner of popular culture and declare it Sony’s exclusive domain.” Tencent’s position is that Sony’s claim that Horizon Zero Dawn is “like no fictional world created before [or] since” is contradicted by the game’s developers and represents an “impermissible monopoly on genre conventions.”
Tencent notes that Horizon Zero Dawn art director Jan-Bart Van Beek acknowledged the game’s similarity to an earlier title, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, in a behind-the-scenes documentary. According to Tencent, Sony originally shelved Horizon over those similarities before ultimately producing the game.
Sony’s original complaint cited a March 2024 meeting between the company and Tencent about a potential Horizon spin-off mobile game that was ultimately rejected by Sony. Tencent’s motion to dismiss acknowledges that a meeting took place, but states, “no Tencent Holdings executives or employees were at this meeting,” and adds that “Sony has failed to make a prima facie showing that any actions at this meeting caused harm to Sony.”
The motion goes on to state that Tencent Holdings, Tencent America, and Proxima Beta U.S. should be dismissed from the lawsuit because Sony “cannot [specifically] substantiate the claims it brings against [them].” Light of Motiram is being developed by two Tencent-affliliated companies, Polaris Quest / Aurora Studios and Proxima Beta PTE Ltd., a subsidy based in Singapore.
Tencent also states that since Light of Motiram hasn’t been released, “the alleged infringements have not occurred and may in fact never occur.”
Shortly after Sony filed the lawsuit, Tencent changed several elements on Light of Motiram’s Steam page, and the Horizon-like imagery was removed. Light of Motiram is expected to be released in 2027.