The legal battle between Sony and Tencent, which lasted for about five months and caused widespread repercussions in the gaming world with the “Horizon clone” controversy, ended with a surprising settlement.
Tencent completely removed Light of Motiram, the open-world survival game that was the subject of a lawsuit due to its similarity to PlayStation’s iconic Horizon series, from Steam and the Epic Games Store.
Light of Motiram is being shelved
Documents submitted to the court on December 18, 2025, show that the parties reached a confidential settlement and that Sony’s copyright infringement lawsuit was “definitively” dismissed. With this decision, the parties also lost the right to sue each other again on the same issue.
Shiftdelete.netThe legal process gained momentum when Sony initiated legal action against Tencent in a California federal court last July. Sony argued that Light of Motiram was not merely an inspiration; it was a “faithful copy” of Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West, from character designs and color palettes to the interface (HUD) and music.
The leaked documents claimed that Tencent presented a Horizon mobile game project to Sony in 2024, but after the offer was rejected, the company continued developing the project under a different name and with unauthorized assets. Tencent initially took a strong stance against these accusations, accusing Sony of “trying to monopolize genre standards.”
Now, the removal of the game from digital stores raises serious questions about the project’s future. In a joint statement, Tencent and Sony stated that the parties had reached a satisfactory solution and looked forward to working together in the future, but refrained from giving further details.
