Sony Sues Tencent For Copyright and Trademark Infringement of the Horizon Series

By Wallace Truesdale  |  July 29, 2025 | 11:44am
Images taken from the lawsuit
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Sony Sues Tencent For Copyright and Trademark Infringement of the Horizon Series

As reported by Reuters, Sony Interactive Entertainment is suing Tencent for allegedly violating copyright and trademark. Sony is claiming Tencent directly copied from one of their modern tentpole series, Horizon, calling Tencent’s game Light of Motiram a “slavish clone” in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit aims to prevent the release of Light of Motiram, developed by Polaris Quest, and is chock full of examples Sony pulled to show its resemblance to the Horizon series. It includes side-by-side comparisons of art and designs, screenshots of Steam users calling Light of Motiram a copy of the Horizon games, and cropped out article headlines dubbing the game a rip-off. A quick visual perusal will show how uncanny some of the parallels are; for instance, both games are set in a techno-nature apocalyptic future where tribal groups fight against strikingly animal-like robots and feature a young, red-headed huntress character as the protagonist. 

Sony claims the promotional material and trailer for Light of Motiram reveals, in part, “identical story and gameplay themes, cultural, and character elements, but also art style, landscapes, architectural and art elements, color palettes, fonts, and symbols.” The lawsuit also states the games have “highly similar music” and claims that Tencent hired a composer from the Horizon Forbidden West soundtrack to replicate the sound for Light of Motiram.

A peculiar aspect of this lawsuit is Sony detailing how Tencent asked it to make a Horizon game. Apparently, Tencent had started developing Light of Motiram in 2023. In March 2024 at a gaming conference in San Francisco, California, Tencent pitched to Sony the idea of making their own Horizon game in collaboration with the latter. Sony said no, considering the matter closed, but Tencent continued to develop Light of Motiram without Sony’s knowledge. 

After Tencent announced a forthcoming game, the lawsuit says Sony informally approached Tencent about its copyright violation concerns in early 2025. Tencent, again, asked to license the Horizon intellectual property. Sony, again, said no and objected to Light of Motiram, insisting it be withdrawn. Allegedly, Tencent ignored these demands and has continued preparations for launching the game, even recently saying it will commence global testing soon in an April gameplay showcase.

While players shouldn’t be in the business of taking sides between two megacorporations, the evidence and story presented in the lawsuit, on top of the sheer amount of non-Sony people calling Light of Motiram a clone beforehand, is enough to wonder how Tencent will come out of this affair.

 
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