Sony Sues Tencent Over Upcoming Light of Motiram Game

There are some striking similarities, according to Sony.

Have you heard of Tencent's upcoming adventure game Light of Motiram? Why not take a look for yourself before we move into the news...

Oh, hey, but have you also heard of Sony's Horizon Zero Dawn? Why not take a look at that game, too, before we move on...

Bearing in mind that this is a small sample size, there's no denying that Horizon and Motiram have some similarities at a glance. Maybe some common DNA? However you want to phrase it, Sony at the very least seems to believe that Tencent was a tad too close to the mark with Motiram, as the former is suing the latter for copyright and trademark infringement.

In court documents, Sony said the following:

[Plaintiff Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC brings this action against defendants Tencent Holdings Ltd., Tencent Technology] to prevent the imminent release of Light of Motiram—a slavish clone of SIE’s immensely popular, award-winning Horizon series of video games. Tencent’s copying of Horizon is so blatant that the public has described it as “crazy,” “insane,” and “shameless.” Tencent also used its rip-off of the iconic Horizon main character “Aloy” as the centerpiece of its pre-release marketing and promotional strategy, deliberately causing numerous game lovers to confuse Light of Motiram as the next game in the Horizon series when encountering Tencent’s promotional game play videos and social media accounts.

A pretty damning accusation right there, but one that has been made by multiple other parties across the web and print, including media pundits on numerous mainstream video game news websites. It frankly isn't the first time that Tencent has been alleged to have swiped from other studios, as the company is known for producing what many consider to be knockoff games of other, more popular franchises and games.

Tencent is located in China, a country that is infamous for ripping off intellectual property from other parts of the world for decades now, it's perhaps not all that surprising that Motiram is what it is. However, with this litigation it might come to pass that Tencent faces some serious repercussions for going too far this time around. We'll cotinue to report on the situation as the court proceedings unfold.

Source: Reuters