When Tencent revealed Light of Motiram. everyone, and we mean everyone, said just one thing – “That looks a LOT like Sony’s Horizon franchise”. From the design of the characters to the metal beasts, some of which are almost identical to those which Aloy battles, the game was clearly a copy.
Tencent were never going to get away with it and Sony have now filed a lawsuit against them, but there’s an added detail we did not know before. It turns of Tencent had been pitching a Horizon game to Sony in 2024 but it had been rejected. It seems they just went ahead and made a copy instead.
Sony’s lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of California last week, on July 25, 2025, and in it it states that Light of Motirm is a “slavish clone” of its games that copies multiple elements that would confuse consumers. They also reference many video games websites that noted the similarities. They have asked the court to award unspecified damages and block the release of Light of Motiram.
“Light of Motiram will be free to play and is coming to PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, assuming Sony’s lawyers don’t get to it first,” we noted when the game was announced. Should have put money on that.
NCSoft’s Horizon MMO was been cancelled before it was announced, another casualty from Sony’s ill-fated live service push. However, a Horizon movie was announced at the start of the year.
By all counts, Horizon Forbidden West sold well, it just maybe didn’t meaningfully outpace the original. Having launched in February 2022, Horizon Forbidden West had sold over 8.4 million units by April 2023 (13-14 months after launch), not too far removed from the 7.6 million that Horizon Zero Dawn sold by its first anniversary.
The series has seen plenty of activity since then with the Burning Shores story expansion later in 2023, the PC port launching in 2024, and the Horizon Zero Dawn remaster late last year as well. In an unexpected move, Sony also produced a Lego Horizon Adventures spin-off that launched across PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch.
