Tencent has finally responded to Sony’s PlayStation lawsuit on Light of Motiram being a ‘slavish clone’ of their Horizon series.
For those unaware, earlier this year, Sony filed a lawsuit against Tencent in a California federal court for copyright and trademark infringement. In this case, Sony had alleged that ‘Light of Motiram’ borrows elements from the Horizon series, including gameplay, story themes, and artistic elements, among others. Now, Tencent has finally responded with a motion to dismiss
Sony’s lawsuit is an “improper attempt to fence off a well-trodden corner of popular culture”, says Tencent
According to a report by TheGamePost, Tencent has presented a number of points to get rid of Sony’s case against the alleged Horizon clone. Their first point was that this lawsuit by Sony isn’t an attempt to ward off “piracy, plagiarism, or any genuine threat to intellectual property.” Instead, it is an “improper attempt to fence off a well-trodden corner of popular culture.”
Tencent states that Sony is “an impermissible monopoly on genre conventions”, as it “tries to transform ubiquitous genre ingredients into proprietary assets”. Tencent defends Light of Motiram, stating that they are simply incorporating “the same time-honored tropes” that games released before and after Horizon have used. They provided examples of games like “Enslaved, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Far Cry: Primal, Far Cry: New Dawn, Outer Wilds, and Biomutant.”
Tencent States That Horizon Zero Dawn Devs Acknowledged Borrowing Elements from Another Game
The next defence by Tencent against Sony’s lawsuit could be a strong one. They mentioned that Jan-Bart Van Beek, the art director for Horizon Zero Dawn, had stated during a behind-the-scenes documentary that Horizon Zero Dawn’s game’s core conceit was already executed by Enslaved: Odyssey to the West in 2013.
The art director had also warned Sony, stating that they shouldn’t pursue this idea as it touches too many of the points from Enslaved. Horizon Zero Dawn was shelved for some time, only to be brought back to life by PlayStation later.
The next point was against Sony, stating that Tencent had approached to collaborate on a Horizon title. The statement reveals that no Tencent Holdings executives or employees attended the 2024 San Francisco GDC meeting. They add that even if the attendees could be attributed to Tencent Holdings, Sony has failed to show that this meeting caused any harm to them.
Tencent Talks About Light of Motiram Not Releasing till 2027
Tencent adds that Sony has filed a lawsuit against the wrong entities: Tencent America, Proxima Beta U.S., and Tencent Holdings. These entities are not involved in the development or marketing of Light of Motiram. Lastly, they stated that Light of Motiram will not be out until 2027; hence, Sony’s lawsuit is based on hypotheticals: “The alleged infringements have not occurred and may in fact never occur.”
In other news, Tencent has made several changes to Light of Motiram’s Steam page after the lawsuit PlayStation is reportedly hosting a State of Play event next week. What are your thoughts on Tencent’s response to Sony’s copyright and trademark infringement lawsuit? Let us know through the official Insider Gaming forums discussion.
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