Sony v Tencent copyright lawsuit settled, offending Light of Motiram game pulled from stores

Sony's copyright lawsuit against Tencent has ended, and both parties have agreed to settle for an undisclosed sum.

Back in July, Sony sued Tencent in a copyright lawsuit, alleging that the Chinese games-maker created a product that was too close to Sony's Horizon franchise to be a coincidence. Tencent's so-called 'Horizon clone' had been titled Light of Motiram, and Sony's original 48-page legal complaint laid out side-by-side comparisons that showed stark similarities between the two games.

Now it's been revealed that the case has been dismissed. Sony and Tencent have reached a "confidential settlement," the court filing says, and the Light of Motiram game is no longer available on Steam or the Epic Games Store.

Interestingly enough, the Light of Motiram trailer is still up on IGN's YouTube page--this footage was directly cited in the lawsuit--and there are still old versions of Tencent's game available on Google search.

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The court case delivered a rare look at the inside deals of the video games industry, especially in regards to Sony, who typically keeps its affairs and business arrangements quite private.

According to the case, Tencent's Aurora Studios wanted to make a game based on Sony's first-party Horizon franchise. Sony refused the offers and proposals not once, but twice, yet Aurora was very persistent. In fact, it was said that the group actually showed early assets and concept art for Light of Motiram in a proposal for a new Last of Us game.

Here's an excerpt from the written declaration of PlayStation's head of mobile Olivier Courtemanche on the topic:

"With respect to Aurora Studios, we went into the meeting under the impression that they wanted to do a potential collaboration for The Last of Us. However, although we had previously declined Tencent's request to co-develop a new Horizon mobile game, while watching Aurora Studios' presentation, we saw a slide with images resembling a potential Horizon collaboration from the Project Z concept discussed in March 2024.

"I recall the slide featured a female character with costume design resembling a Horizon robotic animal. Now that I have reviewed the promotional materials released for Light of Motiram, I believe that these images contained assets from the Light of Motiram game.