New Tencent game accused of ‘ripping off’ Sony’s Horizon series
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New Tencent game accused of ‘ripping off’ Sony’s Horizon series

Posted on by Amelia Pressman

A new game from Tencent has been accused of “ripping off” Sony’s Horizon video game series.

Light of Motiram from Shanghai-based Tencent subsidiary Polaris Quest is described as an open-world multiplayer survival game where “nature meets machine.”

These are the general gameplay descriptions you’d find on any Steam page, but it’s the look of Light of Motiram that’s causing a stir online. In the teaser videos and screenshots below, we can see a striking similarity to Guerrilla Games’ Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, complete with robotic beasts and a female character wielding a bow and arrow, all in a familiar post-apocalyptic setting and art style.

“Rebuild a new civilization and fight, befriend and raise various mechanics alone or with friends in a sprawling, hostile world,” the Light of Motiram description continues.

IGN has reached out to both Tencent and Sony for comment.

Horizon isn’t the only game Light of Motiram is being compared to. Given the base building, survival mechanics and resource-gathering gameplay, as well as the ability to tame “mechanisms”, many point out similarities to Pocketpair’s hit “Palworld”, which itself was accused of “ripping off” Pokémon. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company eventually filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair, accusing the company of patent infringement. Pocketpair announced that it would take legal action against it.

“Can I be the first to say it???” said one Steam user. “Hahahh, I mean, it’s obvious, right? I don’t have to say it. It’s Palworld again.”

“I honestly find this far more obvious than even Palworld,” said another. “Horizon 3 – here we go!” said one X/Twitter user. “Disgusting rip-off,” another added.

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Light of Motiram. Photo credit: Polaris Quest.

Light of Motiram is also compared to Capcom’s Monster Hunter and a number of other games that share similar aesthetics and gameplay mechanics. The inevitable question facing Sony and Tencent now is whether the PlayStation maker will take action against Light of Motiram. Guerrilla is, of course, working on a multiplayer live service Horizon game, which wouldn’t surprise you if it looked like Light of Motiram when Sony finally makes its announcement. In this context, Sony probably won’t react too kindly to what Tencent is doing here.

For now, Light of Motiram is scheduled to release on PC and mobile devices sometime in 2025. It will be free to play and playable alone or with up to nine other friends per server, with full crossplay enabled.

Wesley is the UK news editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].