There have been developments regarding the game from Tencent and Polaris Quest, so an agreement between Sony and the Chinese tech giant may have been reached.
It has been just over a year since Tencent and Polaris Quest announced Light of Motiram. This open-world game was developed for PlayStation 5, PC, Android, and iOS. However, ever since we first saw it, we couldn’t help but call it a Horizon Zero Dawn clone. Although there were some differences in gameplay, such as base building (which Guerrilla‘s acclaimed series lacks), the destroyed world, animal-inspired machines, and red-haired female character made the game look like an obvious imitation.
At the end of July, Sony (the parent company of Guerrilla Games, the creator of Horizon Zero Dawn) sued Tencent for copyright and trademark infringement, calling Light of Motiram a slavish clone of its intellectual property. A few days later, Tencent began modifying the game’s description and images on Steam, including removing screenshots depicting the Aloy-inspired character.
In September, the Chinese company fought back in court, filing a motion to dismiss supported by several counterarguments—such as jurisdictional issues and the claim that Guerrilla had originally scrapped its game idea because the developers felt it resembled Ninja Theory’s Enslaved: Odyssey to the West too closely, before ultimately returning to the concept. Tencent attempted to demonstrate that Horizon was never truly original.
As expected, Sony dismissed these counterarguments as meaningless and continued with the lawsuit. Two weeks ago, Sony succeeded in halting the game’s promotion ahead of new court hearings scheduled in January. However, it appears that this will no longer be necessary. A quick search on Steam shows that Light of Motiram is no longer available on Valve’s platform. According to SteamDB, the game has been recalled and is no longer accessible.
The latest information comes from The Verge, which received a comment from Sony stating that the two companies had reached a private agreement and would not discuss the matter publicly, but they look forward to future cooperation.
It seems that Light of Motiram has been canceled, and Tencent ultimately yielded to Sony’s concerns—avoiding a lengthy legal battle it would likely have lost.
Source: WCCFTech, SteamDB, The Verge
