Tencent has hit again at Sony’s lawsuit that claimed upcoming recreation Gentle of Motiram was nothing greater than a “slavish clone” of Horizon Zero Dawn — and highlighted considerations throughout the PlayStation maker that its personal recreation was too just like Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.
In a recent response to Sony’s authorized motion, Chinese language tech large Tencent branded the lawsuit as an “impermissible” try to assert possession of “well-trodden” tropes — such as a red-headed heroine combating robotic dinosaurs — and a bid by Sony to achieve a monopoly over a whole style.
As well as, Tencent highlighted previous feedback made by Horizon Zero Dawn developer Jan-Bart Van Beek, the place the artwork director admitted considerations inside Guerrilla that its idea was too just like Ninja Idea’s 2013 recreation Enslaved: Odyssey to the West — one other instance of a red-headed heroine combating robotic beasts.
In a authorized submitting reported by The Game Post, Tencent described Sony’s transfer as an overreach, and highlighted different recreation franchises with comparable parts to Horizon Zero Dawn such as The Legend of Zelda and Far Cry. It was “startling,” Tencent mentioned, that Sony was now making an attempt to assert Horizon’s idea was authentic, fairly than an thought primarily based on “ubiquitous style components.”
“By suing over an unreleased venture that merely employs the identical time-honored tropes embraced by scores of different video games launched each earlier than and after Horizon — like Enslaved, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Far Cry: Primal, Far Cry: New Dawn, Outer Wilds, Biomutant, and plenty of extra — Sony seeks an impermissible monopoly on style conventions,” Tencent wrote.
Sony’s declare that Horizon was an authentic PlayStation idea was additionally “flatly contradicted” by remarks made in a behind-the-scenes documentary by Van Beek, Tencent acknowledged, claiming that Guerrilla had briefly shelved work on Horizon Zero Dawn as a consequence of inside considerations it shared too many similarities with Enslaved.
“Lengthy earlier than this lawsuit was filed, the builders of Horizon Zero Dawn publicly acknowledged that the exact same recreation parts that, right now, Sony claims to personal solely, had been in truth borrowed from an earlier recreation,” Tencent argued.
“Mr. Van Beek warned, ‘I don’t suppose we should always do that; it touches an excessive amount of of those different factors,’ referring to distinguished parts of Enslaved. Sony shelved the venture — solely to revive it later with full consciousness that the thought was removed from novel. When Horizon Zero Dawn lastly launched in 2017, the gaming neighborhood famous its placing resemblance to Enslaved and different style staples.”
Tencent’s rebuttal makes an attempt to dismiss different parts of Sony’s lawsuit, too, by stating that its work on Gentle of Motiram was unconnected to a failed pitch assembly with Sony for a Horizon spin-off. Tencent has additionally claimed that Sony’s complete lawsuit is invalid as a result of the corporate had named the incorrect elements of Tencent in its preliminary criticism.
Nonetheless, whereas making an attempt to defend itself from Sony’s authorized motion, it’s notable that Tencent has additionally seemingly made changes to the work-in-progress Gentle of Motiram itself. A look on the recreation’s Steam web page reveals it has been scrubbed of screenshots and logos that depicted its redheaded star and people robotic dinosaurs. The suggestion right here is that Tencent plans to finally launch Gentle of Motiram with out the weather Sony has deemed most just like Horizon. It will be fascinating to see how Sony responds to those obvious alterations when it points its rebuttal.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s Information Editor. You possibly can attain Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or discover him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social