Tencent has alleged that Sony is attempting to establish a "monopoly on genre conventions" in its response to the copyright lawsuit concerning Light of Motiram

Tencent has countered Sony's allegations that its forthcoming game, Light of Motiram, is merely a "copycat" of the popular Horizon series. Tencent asserts that Sony is not protecting against actual threats to its intellectual property but is instead attempting to monopolize common genre elements by presenting them as proprietary.

In July, Sony initiated legal proceedings against Tencent, aiming to halt the launch of Light of Motiram. Sony accused the game of mimicking prominent Horizon features, misleading players to think it was a sequel in the Horizon series due to Tencent's marketing materials. Subsequently, Tencent modified its promotional content for Light of Motiram on its Steam page and elsewhere.

According to The Game Post, Tencent describes these elements of the game as "traditional" and not exclusively belonging to Sony, labeling Sony’s legal stance as "unexpected."

Tencent's legal team stated, "Sony has targeted multiple Tencent entities over the game Light of Motiram, claiming it infringes on elements from Sony's own Horizon Zero Dawn and its sequels." They accuse Sony of overreaching by trying to claim generic genre elements as their own intellectual property.

The legal documentation referenced Horizon Zero Dawn’s art director, Jan-Bart Van Beek, who mentioned in a past documentary that the game's concept was inspired by earlier works, such as the 2013 game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.

Tencent emphasized that even the developers of Horizon previously acknowledged borrowing concepts that are now at the heart of Sony's lawsuit. They argue that Sony's legal challenge seeks to unfairly dominate widespread gaming tropes, similar to those used in numerous other popular games, including The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and others.

The company also refuted Sony's assertion of having presented a Horizon mobile game in 2024, adding that the lawsuit targeted incorrect entities within Tencent, as they neither create nor market Light of Motiram. Additionally, they stated that the lawsuit concerns a game with an anticipated late 2027 release, which is not yet available.

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