Sony sues Tencent over its Horizon Zero Daybreak clone

Sony is suing Tencent for copying almost each facet of its Horizon video games for the upcoming Gentle of Motiram, an open-world searching sport with some apparent similarities to Sony’s franchise, as first reported by Reuters. Tencent first introduced the brand new sport in November 2024.

The lawsuit goes into element on the assorted methods Tencent’s new sport seems to be unlawfully copying memorable elements of Horizon Zero Daybreak, Horizon Forbidden West and Lego Horizon Adventures. That embrace the essential setup of the sport (a post-apocalyptic setting the place tribes of people coexist with machines), the visible look of Gentle of Motiram‘s characters and even how Sony presents the franchise on-line. All of it provides as much as what Sony describes as a “slavish clone” of the Horizon franchise, one thing Engadget and different publications simply clocked when Tencent first introduced the sport.

Probably the most damning a part of Sony’s lawsuit is its declare that Tencent tried to license the Horizon IP earlier than it even introduced Gentle of Motiram. The corporate needed to “develop its personal Horizon sport in collaboration with SIE (Sony Interactive Leisure),” Sony claims, and proposed licensing the Horizon IP to create a cell sport that launched “Japanese aesthetics” and components like “survival and crafting, pet taming, [multiplayer game modes], and so forth.” After Sony rejected the supply, Tencent introduced Gentle of Motiram anyway, with most of the mechanics it pitched and utilizing many recognizable visible components of the Horizon franchise.

In response to the injury and buyer confusion attributable to Tencent making Gentle of Motiram, Sony needs an injunction that stops Tencent from persevering with to develop or launch the sport, together with cash and the destruction of something associated to Gentle of Motiram. The ball is in Tencent’s court docket to argue in any other case, which looks like it may be tough.