🎮️ Sony Just Sued Tencent - And It's Hilarious

Sony’s swinging legal haymakers at Tencent for allegedly cloning Horizon Zero Dawn so hard

August 01, 2025

Good morning!

This week, Sony’s swinging legal haymakers at Tencent for allegedly cloning Horizon Zero Dawn so hard, it might as well be called “Aloy with Extra Steps.” We’ve also got Kojima throwing shade at the entire industry (again), Nintendo breaking Peach and Mario shippers' hearts, and Death Stranding accidentally helping kids bypass age checks. Peak 2025 energy.

In this edition, we’ve got:

  • 🎮 Sony vs. Tencent – the Horizon lawsuit you can’t ignore

  • 👀 Kojima thinks your game looks like every other game

  • 💔 Mario and Peach? Just friends. Forever.

Here’s everything you need to know this week in the world of gaming.

TOP STORY

🎮 Sony vs. Tencent – The “Horizon” Knockoff Saga

Or: What happens when you copy your classmate's homework and forget to change the name on it.

Remember Light of Motum? No? That's probably because it hasn't even launched yet, but it's already famous for looking like someone fed Horizon Zero Dawn into a knockoff machine and hit "Print." The twist? Sony says Light of Motum was originally pitched as a Horizon game. Yeah, Tencent apparently wanted to license the IP, Sony said "nah," and Tencent... just made it anyway. Bold.

Now Sony's lawyers are on the warpath, suing the world's largest game company for what they're calling a “slavish clone.” Allegedly, Light of Motum swiped everything from the red-haired huntress with a bow, robo-dinos, and tribal futurism , right down to the font and the iconic red grass. (Fun fact: the red grass in Horizon exists because Aloy has red hair. Motum kept the grass... without the redhead.)

The lawsuit’s asking for:

  • 💰 Statutory damages (up to $150k per infringement),

  • 💸 Punitive damages (aka the "don't you dare do this again" fee), and

  • 🚫 An injunction to kill the game entirely in U.S. markets.

Sony isn’t just out for cash , they want this thing buried in a robo-dino graveyard. Why? Because they're already making their own Horizon online games, plural. One from Guerrilla (think: Horizon meets Monster Hunter), and another MMO-style title from NCSoft. The last thing they need is a better-looking fake Horizon cannibalizing sales before the real thing launches.

What’s even more wild? If the lawsuit is true and Tencent pitched this as a Horizon game, it’s game over. You can’t build a Horizon game, get denied, then release it anyway with a name like “Night of Potem” and expect no one to notice.

So what now? Tencent might:

  • Settle and can the game,

  • Try to scrub off the Horizon-ness (good luck),

  • Or sell it in markets where U.S. courts can't touch them (hello, China!).

But make no mistake: Sony's trying to make an example here. This is about more than Aloy. It's about drawing a line in the silicon sand. And honestly? Watching two gaming titans slap-fight over a game this blatantly similar is chef's kiss levels of entertainment.

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Thanks for reading - until next time!

Hugs and kisses,

Buh-bye! 👋

Luke