The legal battle between gaming giants Tencent and Sony just got a lot more interesting. Tencent has responded to Sony’s lawsuit, which accused their upcoming game, Light of Motiram, of being a blatant copy of Horizon Zero Dawn. But Tencent isn’t just defending itself; they’ve turned the tables, pointing out that Sony previously had concerns that Horizon Zero Dawn itself bore a striking resemblance to the 2013 title, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.
In their robust defense, Chinese tech powerhouse Tencent slammed Sony’s legal action as an unacceptable attempt to monopolize common gaming tropes. They argued that elements like a red-headed protagonist battling robot dinosaurs are ‘well-trodden’ in the industry, not unique to Horizon Zero Dawn, and accused Sony of trying to claim ownership over an entire genre.
Adding fuel to the fire, Tencent brought up past remarks from Horizon Zero Dawn’s own art director, Jan-Bart Van Beek. He had reportedly expressed internal worries at Guerrilla Games that their concept was too close to Ninja Theory’s ‘Enslaved: Odyssey to the West,’ which also featured a red-haired heroine fighting mechanical creatures.
[An official reveal trailer for Light of Motiram was embedded here.]
As reported by The Game Post, Tencent’s legal filing blasted Sony’s lawsuit as an excessive reach. They cited numerous other franchises with comparable elements, including The Legend of Zelda and Far Cry, to argue that Horizon’s core concept wasn’t original but rather a collection of ‘ubiquitous genre ingredients.’ Tencent found it ‘startling’ that Sony was now attempting to assert originality.
Tencent explicitly stated, “By suing over an unreleased project that merely employs the same time-honored tropes embraced by scores of other games released both before and after Horizon — like Enslaved, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Far Cry: Primal, Far Cry: New Dawn, Outer Wilds, Biomutant, and many more — Sony seeks an impermissible monopoly on genre conventions.”
Tencent further asserted that Sony’s insistence on Horizon’s originality as a PlayStation concept was directly contradicted by Van Beek’s documentary comments. According to Tencent, Guerrilla had temporarily paused development on Horizon Zero Dawn because of significant internal concerns that it too closely mirrored Enslaved.
[A gallery of screenshots from Light of Motiram was shown here.]
Tencent continued, “Long before this lawsuit was filed, the developers of Horizon Zero Dawn publicly acknowledged that the very same game elements that, today, Sony claims to own exclusively, were in fact borrowed from an earlier game.”
They quoted Van Beek’s warning: “I don’t think we should do this; it touches too much of these other points,” in reference to Enslaved’s key features. Tencent highlighted that Sony shelved the project, only to resurrect it later, despite knowing the concept wasn’t unique. When Horizon Zero Dawn released in 2017, the gaming community quickly pointed out its strong similarities to Enslaved and other established genre titles.
Beyond the ‘copycat’ allegations, Tencent’s defense also sought to invalidate other aspects of Sony’s lawsuit. They asserted that their work on Light of Motiram had no connection to a prior, unsuccessful pitch meeting with Sony for a Horizon spin-off. Furthermore, Tencent argued that Sony’s entire lawsuit was procedurally flawed due to incorrect naming of Tencent entities in the initial complaint.
Despite its vigorous legal defense, Tencent has quietly made changes to Light of Motiram itself. Observing the game’s Steam page reveals that all screenshots and logos featuring its red-haired protagonist and signature robot dinosaurs have been removed. This suggests Tencent’s intention to release Light of Motiram without the elements Sony identified as being too similar to Horizon. The industry now awaits Sony’s response to these significant alterations in its upcoming rebuttal.
This report was filed by IGN’s News Editor.