Horizon: Zero Dawn and Horizon: Forbidden West are two of Sony’s best exclusives, so no wonder the company has fiercely protected them amidst a legal battle with Tencent.
In case you missed it, Tencent was accused by Sony of producing a Horizon clone called Light of Motiram, which featured similar visuals. It even has gigantic, robotic animals.
Squinting your eyes you could very easily mistake it for one of the Horizon games and as such Sony quickly moved to have the game taken down, launching a legal battle between the two companies.
It appears Sony has won the battle though, as Light of Motiram can no longer be found on digital storefronts.
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The PC exclusive was previously listed on Steam and The Epic Games Store but has since been removed, suggesting the legal proceedings have ended in Sony’s favour. At the time of writing no statement has been made from either party.
While it’s a shame for the development team that the game was shut down it’s pretty obvious that it was a blatant attempt to cash-in on the success of the Horizon series, especially amidst the hiatus the series is currently going through.
According to sources Light of Motiram was originally pitched as a new Horizon game, with Sony and Tencent apparently having talks about the game before the pitch was rejected.
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Clearly plans went ahead anyway promoting this legal battle, with Tencent accusing Sony of trying to monopolise games that look even remotely like Horizon.
Horizon's Gaming Future
As for the official future of Horizon it’s looking pretty bright, as a third mainline game is likely in the works to continue Aloy’s story, but there are a variety of spin-offs reportedly in development too.
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Earlier this year a Horizon game for mobile devices was revealed, with a focus on multiplayer.
The next proper Horizon game though is a closely guarded secret but we have a few guesses on when and where we might see it.
PlayStation is moving ahead with its next-gen console plans, so it’s likely that Horizon 3 or whatever title it receives is being developed with the PlayStation 6 in mind, though I’d imagine it’ll also be playable on PlayStation 5 too.
For the time being though it seems PlayStation/Sony is the only company able to make a Horizon-like game, and studios wanted to produce their own will have to ensure it does something to stand-out from the PlayStation IP.
Topics: Horizon Forbidden West, Horizon Zero Dawn, PlayStation, PlayStation 5, Sony