In November 2024, Tencent revealed Light of Motiram, an MMO that, to practically everyone's eyes, including ours, looked like a carbon-copy clone of PlayStation and Guerrilla Games' Horizon series. It was so evident that when Sony filed a lawsuit against Tencent over the game and called it a "slavish clone," no one was surprised.
After making significant changes to Light of Motiram's Steam page, including removing certain screenshots and changing the game's description, all to seemingly make it look more vague and less directly like a Horizon rip-off, Tencent fired back at Sony with a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming that even Guerrilla Games admitted that Horizon wasn't an original idea in the first place.
Now, Sony has fired right back at Tencent. In a new filing first reported by The Game Post, Sony directly calls Tencent's defence "nonsense," and that Tencent's continued promotion of Light of Motiram has already inflicted the damage Sony cites in its copyright suit.
"Tencent remarkably contends SIE's claims are unripe because - despite having announced and continuously promoted its game for months - Tencent (purportedly) delayed Light of Motiram's release until 2027 after SIE sued. This is nonsense. The damage is done, and it continues."
"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."
The suit goes on to claim that Tencent even tried to dodge liability "by playing a shell game with its brands and entities." Tencent (or more specifically Tencent Holdings), according to Sony, is the one Sony should be suing, because Tencent owns the IP to Light of Motiram, the US trademark for the game, and the official website. Tencent Holdings is also the parent of Tencent Games, so it's appropriate for Sony to go directly after Tencent Holdings, in Sony's view.
Tencent claimed that Sony shouldn't be suing Tencent Holdings, but Polaris Quest and Aurora Studios, the teams developing and publishing Light of Motiram. Both Polaris Quest and Aurora Studios are subsidiaries of Tencent.
"After SIE was forced to sue, Tencent attempted to avoid liability by playing a shell game with its brands and entities. Tencent tried to shield Defendants that it owns and/or controls from service of process and now seeks to escape jurisdiction over the parent entity, Tencent Holdings."
"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. Insofar as Tencent Holdings is in fact operating the gaming business through subsidiaries, it is controlling them. Tencent Holdings' senior management includes Ma Xiaoyi, who Tencent Holdings represents 'is responsible for international publishing of Tencent Games.'"
For good measure, the new filing calls out once again how public response to Light of Motiram was to directly call it a Horizon knock-off, and went even further to call the game not just copyright, but trademark infringement over the red-haired protagonist that features in Light of Motiram's reveal. The character Aloy is a symbol of the PlayStation and Sony brand, the company argues, and Tencent's own red-haired "lookalike" was "so egregious that numerous journalists and Horizon fans noted the striking similarities between the ALOY Character Mark and Tencent's use of the Aloy lookalike, stating Tencent's lookalike 'resembles Aloy to a tee, red hair and all.'"
Sony even quoted one journalist who said, "If someone told me this is a spin-off of [Horizon], I would easily believe them."
Now, Sony wants the court to dismiss Tencent's motion to dismiss the lawsuit, and go straight into the discovery phase, so Sony can begin digging through Tencent's files regarding Light of Motiram and its development, in the hopes of discovering evidence it can use to further argue that Tencent is committing copyright infringement with Light of Motiram.
However this suit ends, it'll definitely set an interesting precedent for future copyright cases in games. We'll continue to follow it and provide updates as they come. In the meantime, you can also check out the latest news on 2025's other major lawsuit in the video game industry, the battle between Krafton and the co-founders of Unknown Worlds, the studio behind Subnautica and Subnautica 2.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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