Sony’s ongoing lawsuit with Tencent for the latter’s Light of Motiram, a blatant ripoff of the Horizon franchise, has seen the PlayStation manufacturer stating Tencent’s defines is “nonsense.”
This comes from a new court filing by Sony, which has accused the Chinese company of “playing a shell game” with its subsidiaries to mask it from liability.
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Tencent remarkably contends SIE’s claims are unripe because – despite having announced and continuously promoted its game for months – Tencent (purportedly) delayed Light of Motiram’s release until 2027 after SIE sued. This is nonsense. The damage is done – and it continues.
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.
Light of Motiram is being developed by Polaris Quest and its initial announcement yielded many comparisons to Horizon in terms of aesthetics, characters, and locations. After Sony caught on and filed the lawsuit against Tencent, the company altered its Steam listing for Light of Motiram to remove some of the more obvious similarities to Horizon.
Tencent issued its own statement in defence, stating that Sony had attempted to sue the wrong company. The lawsuit filed by the console maker is against Tencent America, Proxima Beta U.S., and Tencent Holdings, but Tencent pointed out that Light of Motiram is being developed by the aforementioned Polaris Quest and published by Aurora Studios. These companies operate under Tencent Technology and Proxima Beta PTE Ltd, based in Singapore.
In response, Sony added:
After SIE was forced to sue, Tencent attempted to avoid liability by playing a shell game with its brands and entities,” Sony has now said. “Tencent tried to shield Defendants that it owns and/or controls from service of process and now seeks to escape jurisdiction over the parent entity, Tencent Holdings.
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.
Light of Motiram is still in development and is not due out until the fourth quarter of 2027, according to its Steam page listing.
[Source – The Game Post via Eurogamer]