Featured Image Credit: Guerilla Games
Topics: Sony, Horizon Zero Dawn, PlayStation
Massive corporations aren't known for cooperating particularly well with one another, but even by those pretty low standards, Sony and Tencent have been on pretty poor terms for a while now.
Much of that bad feeling relates to Light of Motiram, a game that Tencent has developed which Sony claims is a direct rip-off of its own Horizon Zero Dawn, with much of their evidence relating to an alleged meeting between the two companis, where Tencent pitched a mobile Horizon game that eventually evolved into Motiram after it was rejected.
Tencent then struck back by saying that Tencent Holdings Ltd. isn't responsible for the actions of its subsidiaries on a case by case basis (which would nullify the current suit) and that Horizon itself isn't original in the first place, drawing on elements from many well-known franchises.
That brings us up to today, where Sony have once again clapped back with several important new arguments. As first reported by PushSquare, based on documents obtained by The Game Post, they open their new 35-page document with the following gambit, "“Although the public expressed confusion and outrage upon discovering Light of Motiram for the knock-off that it is, Tencent remained undeterred. Tencent continued promoting its infringing game over SIE’s objection, and Tencent refused to accept any responsibility over its conduct."
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They then go on to directly address Tencent's claim that Sony is targeting the wrong company, adding, "“Tencent Holdings describes its own business as having a Games division that ‘own[s] Aurora Studios’ – the Light of Motiram development studio. Tencent Holdings reports all of its revenue and debt from games on its annual report without attribution to any subsidiary. And it uses the name Tencent to advertise its games, like Light of Motiram – without distinguishing between subsidiaries.”
Many of the potential damages cited by Sony relate to future earnings and releases, with the company believing that, were this game to release, it would jeopardise any potential future success they may have with such a direct competitor.
They have also further detailed just how important the franchise is to PlayStation as a brand, becoming one of the defining intellectual properties on the platform.
However this titanic battle does play out, it has likely revealed one major boon for PlayStation players, namely that the company is far from done with the Horizon games and more could be on the immediate horizon. Fingers crossed it's not all just legal bluster.