By Chinese firm allegedly tried to license Guerrilla’s IP
There’s paying homage and then there’s just outright copying.
It looks like Sony’s legal team think Light of Motiram has crossed a line, and it’s suing Chinese giant Tencent over the “slavish” Horizon clone.
According to Reuters, the platform holder filed a lawsuit against the ripoff on 25th July, citing copyright and trademark infringement. Its ultimate goal is to prevent the game from releasing.
“Tencent’s copying of Horizon is so blatant that the public has described it as ‘crazy’, ‘insane’, and ‘shameless’,” the lawsuit claims.
Even wilder is the revelation from Gamespot that Tencent purportedly approached Sony with a pitch to license the Horizon IP, which the platform holder promptly denied.
The lawsuit argues that Tencent is tricking customers into believing Light of Motiram is the next official Horizon game, causing “irreparable injury”. The firm’s demanding $150,000 in damages, and wants access to all of Light of Motiram’s materials so it can destroy them.
If you want to know just how closely this game resembles Sony’s property, you can watch 16 minutes of gameplay below:
To be fair, this release is pitched as more of a survival game than Guerrilla’s efforts, although its promotional artwork is almost indistinguishable.
It’ll be interesting to see the outcome here, especially with Nintendo’s ongoing litigation against Palworld bubbling in the background. The latter has since made alterations to its game in an attempt to appease the part Pokémon owner.
[source reuters.com, via gamespot.com]
As the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He’s an expert on PS Studios and industry matters, as well as sports games and simulators. He also enjoys RPGs when he has the time to dedicate to them, and is a bit of a gacha whale.