![\"Entertainment](\"http:\/\/www.vgchartz.com\/articles_media\/images\/tencent-responds-to-sony-lawsuit-that-claims-light-of-motiram-rips-off-horizon-series-306050_expanded.jpg\")
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by Sony in July of this year filed a lawsuit\u00a0in California federal court\u00a0against Tencent that \u00a0alleges Tencent has ripped off Sony Interactive Entertainment’s\u00a0Horizon<\/em>\u00a0series of video games with\u00a0Light of Motiram<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n The lawsuit claims\u00a0Light of Motiram\u00a0<\/em>is a “slavish clone” that copies several elements from the\u00a0Horizon<\/em>\u00a0series. This includes identical gameplay, story themes, artistic elements, as well as other similarities.\u00a0The company also states it declined an offer from Tencent last year to collaborate on a new\u00a0Horizon<\/em>\u00a0game.<\/span><\/p>\n Tencent has now filed its response to the lawsuit and has filed the motion to dismiss, according to The Game Post<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n “Plaintiff Sony has sued a grab-bag of Tencent companies\u2014and ten unnamed defendants\u2014about the unreleased video game\u00a0Light of Motiram<\/em>, alleging that the game copies elements from Sony\u2019s game\u00a0Horizon Zero Dawn\u00a0<\/em>and its spinoffs,” reads the complaint.<\/span><\/p>\n “At bottom, Sony\u2019s effort is not aimed at fighting off piracy, plagiarism, or any genuine threat to intellectual property. It is an improper attempt to fence off a well-trodden corner of popular culture and declare it Sony\u2019s exclusive domain.”<\/span><\/p>\n Tencent said that Sony’s claim that the Horizon<\/em> series was “like no fictional world created before [or] since” as “startling” and “flatly contradicted” by Sony’s own developers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “In Sony\u2019s telling, Horizon Zero Dawn<\/em> is ‘like no fictional world created before [or] since,'” said Tencent. “That claim is startling, because it is flatly contradicted by Sony\u2019s own developers, not to mention the long history of video games featuring the same elements that Sony seeks to monopolize through this lawsuit.”<\/span><\/p>\n Tencent added,\u00a0<\/span>“Sony\u2019s Complaint tellingly ignores these facts. Instead, it tries to transform ubiquitous genre ingredients into proprietary assets.<\/span><\/p>\n “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<\/em>\u2014like Enslaved<\/em>, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild<\/em>, Far Cry: Prima<\/em>l, Far Cry: New Dawn<\/em>, Outer Wilds<\/em>, Biomutant<\/em>, and many more\u2014Sony seeks an impermissible monopoly on genre conventions.”<\/span><\/p>\n Tencent also alleges Sony already knew the Horizon series wasn’t an original idea as a documentary on Horizon Zero Dawn\u00a0<\/em>featured art director Jan-Bart Van Beek admitting the premise of the game has been done before with 2013’s Enslaved: Odyssey to the West<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n “Long before this lawsuit was filed, the developers of Horizon Zero Dawn<\/em> publicly acknowledged that the very same game elements that, today, Sony claims to own exclusively, were in fact borrowed from an earlier game,” reads the complaint from Tencent.<\/span><\/p>\n “In a behind-the-scenes documentary, the art director for Horizon Zero Dawn<\/em>, Jan-Bart Van Beek, explained that the game\u2019s core conceit\u2014an intrepid, red haired woman navigating the ruins of a shattered civilization overrun by robotic beasts\u2014had already been executed by a different video game studio in the 2013 title Enslaved: Odyssey to the West<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n “Mr. Van Beek warned, ‘I don\u2019t think we should do this; it touches too much of these other points,’ referring to prominent elements of Enslaved<\/em>. Sony shelved the project\u2014only to revive it later with full awareness that the idea was far from novel. When Horizon Zero Dawn<\/em> finally launched in 2017, the gaming community noted its striking resemblance to Enslaved<\/em> and other genre staples.”<\/span><\/p>\n Light of Motiram<\/em> is an open-world game that features colossal machines. It is in development for the PlayStation 5, PC via\u00a0Steam<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Epic Games Store<\/a>, iOS, and Android.<\/span><\/p>\n A life-long and avid gamer,\u00a0<\/em>William D’Angelo<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own\u00a0<\/span><\/em>YouTube channel<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>Twitch channel<\/a>. You can follow the author<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>on\u00a0<\/span><\/em>Bluesky<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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\n William D’Angelo<\/a>
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