Tencent’s Legal Battle With Sony Takes A New Turn (That Could Sink Their Next Big Game)

Tencent and Sony have been locked in a surprising legal battle this year, and it could end up being a major blow to Tencent’s upcoming titles. Tencent is one of the biggest companies in gaming, with titles like League of Legends, Clash of Clans, and Fortnite all having connections to the company. One of their next big titles is expected to be the fantasy adventure game, Light of Motiram.

An open-world survival game from Polaris Quest, the game’s visuals, worldbuilding, and mechanics have been openly compared to the Horizon franchise from Sony. While the companies have gone back and forth with accusations and legal arguments, a trial is brewing that could determine the fate of the game once and for all. Until then, Tencent has made some concessions to appease Sony, one of which could end up being a big blow to the potential success of Light of Motiram once it sees the light of day.

Tencent Will Stop Promoting Light of Motiram

In the latest twist to Tencent and Sony’s legal battle over Light of Motiram, the former will halt promotion for the game ahead of trial. Since being announced at the tail-end of 2024, Light of Motiram has been a source of controversy for Tencent and its Polaris Quest studio. The game has been openly accused of copying too heavily from Sony’s Horizon franchise, including the look of the player character, the vast landscapes, and the robotic wildlife. While these accusations were tossed around online by gamers, Sony ended up agreeing with the sentiment and has set up legal action against Tencent, accusing the company of copyright and trademark infringement.

Tencent has fired back, accusing Sony of trying to monopolize common gaming tropes and arguing that Horizon isn’t defined enough to constitute a full trademark. While Sony has attempted to keep Light of Motiram from going on sale while the legal hearing is underway, Tencent has made a deal with Sony in an effort to resolve the issue. The arrangement ensures that Sony and Tencent’s request for court hearings (both for Sony’s injunction against the project and Tencent’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit entirely) will be held on the same day, and that Light of Mitiram will not have its release date moved up before Q4 2027.

Notably, the arrangement also ensures that Tencent will not be moving forward with any new promotion or public testing of Light of Motiram while the injunction is being debated in court. In exchange, Sony has given Tencent more time to respond to the legal motion. This at least gives both sides some breathing room and indicates that common ground can be found between the companies, but it also doesn’t bode well for Light of Motiram.

What Tencent’s New Move Means For Light of Motiram

On the one hand, this at least appears to keep Light of Motiram on Tencent’s release schedule, indicating that the publisher isn’t backing down from their defense of the game. However, it’s also a potentially crucial blow to the title. In the current gaming space, landing with the right audience at the correct time is an important step in ensuring major games, especially big-budget releases like Light of Motiram, are able to break through and find success.

As evidenced by all the developers and publishers anxiously trying to ensure they don’t have new games trying to compete with bigger titles like Grand Theft Auto 6, a lackluster launch can sink entire studios in the current climate. Tencent is a big enough publisher that Light of Motiram stumbling wouldn’t be a fatal blow, but it would be a major disappointment for the company. The longer the game remains in the limelight because of the company’s legal conflict with Sony, the more associated with Horizon the title will be.

Even if Light of Motiram does change more during development and finds a visual and tonal tenor that separates it more from the Sony series, it will likely struggle to escape the shadow of comparisons to the older franchise. Tencent still clearly has high hopes for the game, and the best-case scenario is that the legal dispute is ended quickly in their favor. However, if it drags on and Tencent isn’t able to properly promote the game ahead of release, it might not matter if they win in court or not.