The ongoing war of words between Sony and Tencent’s well-imbursed legal teams continues, as the Japanese giant has hit back at the Chinese juggernaut over Horizon knock-off Light of Motiram again.
You may recall that PlayStation sued the “slavish clone” earlier in the year, claiming Tencent had pitched it on a mobile version of Horizon Zero Dawn, which was rejected and later evolved into the copy-cat survival game.
Tencent rejected Sony’s case, claiming it was suing the wrong entity and arguing that Horizon is not original in the slightest, and features “time-honoured tropes embraced by scores of other games” including Far Cry and The Legend of Zelda.
It said PlayStation is seeking an “impermissible monopoly on genre conventions”, and asked for the case to be dismissed.
Now the platform holder has struck back, calling Tencent’s response “nonsense” as it works to get the game cancelled.
In a 35-page document read by The Game Post, the manufacturer noted that any claims of the game being incomplete don’t hold up, as its release date changed to 2027 after Sony sued.
It pointed out that despite changes to the game’s Steam page, which now show more generic artwork than before, promotional trailers still exist across YouTube and storefronts.
“The damage is done – and it continues,” the company countered.
The case adds:
“Although 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’s objection, and Tencent refused to accept any responsibility over its conduct.”
Sony has also accused Tencent of playing “corporate hide-and-seek” with its various entities and subsidiaries in order to avoid responsibility.
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.
But it counters:
“Tencent Holdings describes its own business as having a Games division that ‘own[s] Aurora Studios’ – 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 – without distinguishing between subsidiaries.”
Sony says Light of Motiram ultimately “jeopardises Horizon’s continued success”, and it also went on to show some of the similarities between the rip-off’s protagonist and Aloy.
It said the Horizon heroine has become a “brand identifier”, and by using a similar character in Steam banners and website mastheads, it’s created “confusion” among consumers.
The platform holder is now asking the courts to deny Tencent’s motion to dismiss the case, and presumably then we’ll move onto the next phase of all this.
Which is to say, it doesn’t 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.
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