Sony Escalates Legal Battle Against Tencent, Demanding Preliminary Injunction Over Alleged ‘Horizon’ Clone

Legal Showdown Heats Up: Sony Targets Tencent’s ‘Light of Motiram’ with Preliminary Injunction Motion

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has significantly intensified its legal action against Chinese technology titan Tencent, filing a motion for a preliminary injunction to halt the promotion and development of Tencent’s upcoming open-world survival game, Light of Motiram. SIE alleges that the game is a “slavish clone” of its highly successful PlayStation exclusive franchise, Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West, claiming the continued promotion causes irreparable harm to its intellectual property and confuses the global gaming market.

The motion, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, follows Sony’s initial copyright and trademark infringement lawsuit launched in late July 2025. This latest development underscores Sony’s aggressive stance on protecting its high-value IP, particularly in the face of alleged direct competition from a major industry player like Tencent.

The Core of the Copyright Conflict: Aloy and the Post-Apocalyptic Aesthetic

The legal documents specifically target several key elements within Light of Motiram that SIE claims are copied or derived directly from the Horizon games. The most prominent focus is on the protagonist of Tencent’s title, described by Sony as a “fierce tribal warrior huntress characterized by fiery red hair,” which the company argues is an unmistakable imitation of Horizon’s iconic lead, Aloy. Sony maintains that this “Aloy lookalike” is an egregious attempt to trade off the established goodwill and reputation of the Aloy Character Mark.

Beyond the character design, the injunction also seeks to bar the use of other visuals, storyline elements, and even a melody from the game’s promotional material, which is alleged to be highly similar to two compositions from the Horizon Zero Dawn Original Soundtrack (OST). These similarities reportedly include:

• The overall aesthetic of a post-apocalyptic world blending primitive tribal societies with advanced, large robotic creatures.
• A red-haired female protagonist as the central focus of the open-world action-RPG gameplay.
• Visual and UI elements allegedly mirroring the distinctive style of the Horizon franchise.

Sony claims that the copying was “so egregious that numerous journalists and Horizon fans loudly decried the obvious and pervasive copying of Horizon’s protected elements.” The company has leveraged these public and media reactions as critical evidence supporting its claim of consumer confusion.

Tencent’s Defense: “Well-Trodden Tropes” and the “Shell Game” Allegation

Tencent, through its motion to dismiss the original lawsuit, has previously responded by labeling Sony’s action as an “improper attempt to fence off a well-trodden corner of popular culture.” The Chinese megacorp argues that elements like red-headed heroines, tribal settings, and robotic animals are merely “time-honored tropes” found across the video game industry in titles such as The Legend of Zelda and Far Cry.

In a surprising counter-argument, Tencent also cited internal concerns raised by the original Horizon Zero Dawn development team, Guerrilla Games, that the game’s concept was initially too similar to Ninja Theory’s 2013 game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.

However, Sony has fiercely rejected this defense, calling it “nonsense” and accusing Tencent of “playing a shell game… to avoid being held accountable.” Sony pointed to Tencent’s actions following the initial lawsuit—quietly purging numerous allegedly infringing screenshots and logos from the Light of Motiram Steam page and delaying the release date from late 2025 to late 2027—as a deliberate attempt to evade legal accountability. Sony’s stance is that “the damage is done – and it continues” with the potential loss of market control over its valuable IP.

Market Implications and Financial Stakes: A Precedent-Setting Case

This high-profile legal struggle pits two of the global gaming leaders against each other over the crucial issue of intellectual property protection in the highly lucrative open-world action-RPG genre. Sony, which has sold over 38 million copies across the Horizon franchise, is aggressively defending one of its tentpole exclusive franchises that is key to the PlayStation ecosystem. The case has significant implications for game development costs and intellectual property rights across the industry, potentially setting a precedent for what constitutes permissible “inspiration” versus actionable “slavish copying.”

The preliminary injunction hearing is tentatively set for late November 2025. If granted, the injunction could force Tencent to immediately:

• Remove all promotional materials for Light of Motiram featuring the alleged infringing elements.
• Halt development on any portions of the game that use the “copied or derived” material.
• Require a substantial redesign of the main character and other visual/audio assets.

Game industry analysts are closely watching the proceedings, noting that a successful preliminary injunction for Sony would send a powerful message about the enforcement of copyright protection against even the largest, most financially robust industry players. This is a critical development for the future of exclusive content and the battle against alleged IP infringement in the premium gaming space.