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

Tencent is countering Sony's allegations that the forthcoming game, Light of Motiram, constitutes a "slavish clone" of the Horizon series. Tencent argues that Sony is not confronting piracy or intellectual property threats, but is instead trying to claim widespread genre elements as its own.

Sony initiated a copyright lawsuit against Tencent in July, seeking a jury trial over claims of copyright and trademark violations. The company aims to stop the release of Light of Motiram, accusing Tencent of copying the character Aloy from Horizon and misleading fans through marketing materials on social media. Following this, Tencent revised the Steam page and promotional content for Light of Motiram.

According to The Game Post, Tencent has defended its use of traditional genre elements, describing Sony's litigation as "startling." Tencent's legal team stated that Sony has filed a suit against several Tencent entities, claiming that Light of Motiram mimics elements of Horizon Zero Dawn, even before the game is released.

Tencent maintains that Sony's lawsuit isn't combating genuine threats to intellectual property. Instead, it attempts to monopolize genre conventions. The court documents suggest Horizon Zero Dawn’s art director, Jan-Bart Van Beek, previously mentioned that elements of Horizon were inspired by older games like Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.

“Developers of Horizon Zero Dawn had acknowledged that game elements were inspired by prior works," stated Tencent, as it criticized Sony for overlooking these acknowledgments and opposing other games that share similar genre features.

Tencent rebuffed Sony's allegations of pitching a Horizon mobile game at a future GDC in 2024, adding that Sony has directed its lawsuit at the wrong parties since the defendants do not develop the Light of Motiram game. Additionally, Tencent argued that it could not be liable for a game scheduled to release in Q4 2027 that has not yet launched.

For more insights on Tencent, explore the feature, Behind the scenes at Tencent.