PlayStation's Horizon Lawsuit May Only Be the Tip of the…

PlayStation is widely known for creating some of gaming’s most celebrated franchises, such as God of War, Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted, The Last of Us, and the relatively recent Horizon series. These exclusive titles contribute to high console sales and continued interest in the PlayStation brand, so Sony Interactive Entertainment is highly defensive of its many successful game franchises. That is best exemplified in Sony’s recent lawsuit against Tencent Games and Polaris Quest’s Light of Motiram for allegedly ripping off Guerrilla Games’ Horizon series. However, Sony may not stop at suing Tencent for ripping off Horizon but instead continue to sue other companies for allegedly making games copying Sony’s exclusive titles.

Tencent Originally Pitched a Horizon Game to Sony

Sony reports that Tencent had previously approached it to make a Horizon spin-off before the controversial Light of Motiram and resulting lawsuit.

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By J Brodie Shirey

Horizon Vs. Light of Motiram

When the Horizon franchise first began with 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn, the game was an instant success, selling 2.6 million copies within its first two weeks and gaining overwhelmingly favorable reviews. Critics praised Aloy’s character and Horizon’s world design filled with awe-inspiring animalistic machines. This financial and critical success instantly caused Sony and Guerrilla Games to begin working on a direct sequel and spin-offs, which eventually saw similar financial and critical acclaim.

By Spring 2023, Horizon Zero Dawn, Horizon Forbidden West, and Horizon Call of the Mountain had sold over 32.7 million combined copies worldwide across PS4, PS5, and PC platforms. This continued success led to Guerrilla expanding the Horizon franchise further with Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, LEGO Horizon Adventures, and an upcoming Horizon multiplayer title. Horizon has quickly become a global phenomenon in its eight years of existence, even venturing beyond video games into tabletop games, comics, and an upcoming Zero Dawn film adaptation from Columbia Pictures. This fame inevitably saw other companies attempting to profit from Horizon’s appeal, resulting in the announcement of Tencent’s Light of Motiram in late 2024.

Set in a post-apocalyptic tribal world overrun by colossal machines, Light of Motiram is a third-person, open-world game wherein players can tame and control animalistic machines called Mechanimals. However, players can take part in Light of Motiram in either single-player or in co-op and participate in PvP modes, while LEGO Horizon Adventures is the only multiplayer-capable Horizon game released so far.

Sony’s Lawsuit Against Tencent’s Light of Motiram

If that description of Light of Motiram sounds familiar to Horizon, Sony executives thought so too, calling Light of Motiram a “slavish clone” of Horizon. Sony officially sued Tencent for copyright and trademark infringement in California federal court for ripping off the Horizon IP. Sony claims that Motiram features identical gameplay, story themes, and artistic elements to Horizon, which is fairly obvious to see through Motiram's marketing, character and machine design, and even music. Tencent reportedly contacted Sony to offer their services to work on a new Horizon game in early 2024, but Sony declined the offer. Sony is seeking monetary damages and an order blocking Tencent from violating its intellectual property rights.

Sony’s Potential Future Lawsuits

Sony’s lawsuit against Tencent is currently ongoing, though it’s likely Sony will win the suit as the similarities between Horizon and Light of Motiram are undeniable. Even some of Motiram's promotional art appears to be blatant copies of Horizon Zero Dawn’s promotional and concept art: both depict a tribal woman looking over a landscape with towering animalistic machines. It’s unknown when this lawsuit will be resolved or if it will result in Tencent taking down and delisting Light of Motiram from storefronts but, if Sony wins the suit, Sony could begin suing other game developers and companies for allegedly infringing on their other IP.

Besides Light of Motiram clearly copying Horizon’s world design, other game developers and companies have attempted to profit from PlayStation’s hits in rather easily identifiable ways. For example, VG Games previously released the 2023 survival game The Last Hope: Dead Zone Survival for the Nintendo Switch. Immediately following The Last Hope’s announcement, players pointed out near-identical traits between it and Sony’s The Last of Us franchise. The Last Hope was delisted shortly after its release following Sony filing copyright claims. Sony may also take umbrage with Zego Studio for copying Marvel’s Spider-Man animations and gameplay in its mobile Spider Fighting: Hero Game. Sony could also sue Zacharias for copying 2018’s God of War character design and gameplay in its mobile game The Slayer Rpg APK.