Sony sues Tencent over Horizon clone

Horizon Zero Dawn is Sony's action role-playing game about the adventures of a red-haired huntress exploring a futuristic postapocalyptic Earth populated by cybernetic beasts. Light of Motiram is Tencent's action role-playing game about the adventures of a black-haired huntress exploring a futuristic postapocalyptic Earth populated by cybernetic beasts. Sony has filed a lawsuit alleging copyright infringement and other shenanigans.

Notably, Sony alleges that Tencent approached them in 2024, through its Aurora Studios, with a proposal to work on a mobile Horizon spinoff game, but the Japanese company declined. Tencent's pitch, according to the lawsuit, proposed adding "Eastern aesthetics" and "survival and crafting, pet taming," and multiplayer components to the Horizon series. The pitch deck "included mock-ups of Eastern-inspired designs and settings, including one of Aloy […] standing on the Great Wall of China," the suit alleges.

Here's Horizon (top) and Light of Motiram (bottom). That's a lot of flattery, so to speak.

The official trailer for Motiram, below, exposes more literal influences, such as Breath of the Wild.

Previously:
Codeless, AI-generated video game is a terrible Minecraft clone
Sony's $400M failed hero shooter Concord resurfaces in leaked developer build