Tencent has responded to Sony’s Horizon lawsuit, claiming its action adventure game Light of Motiram uses “time-honoured” genre tropes.
Back in July, Sony filed a lawsuit against Tencent claiming its newly-revealed game was a “slavish clone” of the Horizon games, owing to its red-headed heroine, post-apocalyptic world, and robotic enemies.
Tencent has now filed its response in a motion to dismiss, stating Sony “seeks an impermissible monopoly on genre conventions” (thanks The GamePost). It reads as something of an attack against Guerrilla’s games, stating Sony’s claims of Horizon’s originality are “startling”.
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“Plaintiff Sony has sued a grab-bag of Tencent companies – and ten unnamed defendants – about the unreleased video game Light of Motiram, alleging that the game copies elements from Sony’s game Horizon Zero Dawn and its spinoffs,” said Tencent.
“At bottom, Sony’s effort is not aimed at fighting off piracy, plagiarism, or any genuine threat to intellectual property. It is an improper attempt to fence off a well-trodden corner of popular culture and declare it Sony’s exclusive domain.”
Sony previously claimed Horizon Zero Dawn was “like no fictional world created before [or] since”. In response, Tencent claimed this is “flatly contradicted” by Guerrilla itself, pointing to a behind-the-scenes documentary where art director Jan-Bart Van Beek admitted the game’s central premise has been done before – specifically in 2013 game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.
“That claim is startling, because it is flatly contradicted by Sony’s own developers, not to mention the long history of video games featuring the same elements that Sony seeks to monopolise through this lawsuit,” said Tencent.
“Sony’s Complaint tellingly ignores these facts. Instead, it tries to transform ubiquitous genre ingredients into proprietary assets.”
It continued: “By suing over an unreleased project that merely employs the same time-honoured tropes embraced by scores of other games released both before and after Horizon – like Enslaved, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Far Cry: Primal, Far Cry: New Dawn, Outer Wilds, Biomutant, and many more – Sony seeks an impermissible monopoly on genre conventions.”
Comparison of characters from Sony’s initial Complaint | Image credit: Sony
Tencent’s response also addressed a meeting at GDC in March 2024 where Tencent representatives pitched a licensed Horizon mobile game that Sony ultimately turned down. The Chinese company stated no executives or employees were at the meeting, so nothing at the meeting “is alleged to be an act of copyright or trademark infringement”.
What’s more, Tencent has claimed Sony is attempting to sue the wrong company, so wants the case thrown out on legal grounds.
While Sony’s lawsuit is against Tencent America, Proxima Beta U.S., and Tencent Holdings, Light of Motiram – according to Tencent’s response – is being developed and published by Polaris Quest / Aurora Studios, a developer operating under Tencent Technology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, and Proxima Beta PTE Ltd, a company in Singapore “doing business as ‘Tencent Games’ and/or ‘Level Infinite'”.
“None of the served defendants develop and market the Light of Motiram video game that Sony alleges infringes its intellectual property in the Horizon franchise,” said Tencent. It stated Tencent Holdings Ltd. is simply a parent company and has no involvement in Light of Motiram.
“Sony’s threadbare, conclusory allegations improperly lump these Defendants together with the foreign companies alleged to be responsible for the core conduct at issue. Sony’s vague allegations against ‘Tencent’ or ‘Defendants’ generally cannot substantiate the claims it brings against Tencent America, Proxima Beta U.S., or Tencent Holdings specifically.”
Lastly, Light of Motiram won’t release until the end of 2027, meaning Sony’s lawsuit is built on what the game “might” look like before it’s even out, said Tencent.
Still, shortly after Sony began suing Tencent, Light of Motiram’s Steam page was quietly altered to remove, edit, and/or replace key art, as well as rewrite the description.