While details about this settlement are confidential, the court has dismissed the case with prejudice, which means that Sony can’t pursue a lawsuit for similar reasons again. Check out the full court statement below.

“Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure and the confidential settlement of all parties, Plaintiff Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC and Defendants Tencent America LLC, Proxima Beta U.S. LLC, Tencent Holdings Ltd., Proxima Beta PTE Ltd., and Tencent Technology (Shanghai) Company Ltd., by and through their undersigned counsel of record, hereby stipulate as follows:

“All pending motions are withdrawn and this action is hereby dismissed with prejudice. All parties shall bear their own fees and costs.”

While most details about the settlement are unknown, it looks like one of the conditions was removing Light of Motiram from storefronts. This has happened, with the game not having a store page on Steam or Epic Games Store.

Sony had first filed the lawsuit all the way back in July, having accused Tencent of stealing ideas from the Horizon franchise. In its initial lawsuit, Sony referred to Light of Motiram as being a “slavish clone” of the Guerrilla-developed open-world titles Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West, at least in terms of visuals. As a part of its filing, Sony was seeking monetary damages up to an unspecified amount, along with a court order that would block Tencent from violating the Horizon IP.

Tencent responded with its own statement, calling Sony’s lawsuit “improper attempt to fence off” pop culture. The company alleged that Sony was not interested in “fighting off piracy, plagiarism, or any genuine threat to intellectual property.”

“It is an improper attempt to fence off a well-trodden corner of popular culture and declare it Sony’s exclusive domain,” said Tencent in a statement.. “In Sony’s telling, Horizon Zero Dawn is ‘like no fictional world created before [or] since.’” Tencent calls this claim “startling, because it is flatly contradicted by Sony’s own developers, not to mention the long history of video games featuring the same elements that Sony seeks to monopolize through this lawsuit.”

The company noted that Sony’s basis for the lawsuit was superficial, and went on to name several other games that featured similar aesthetics, including The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Biomutant, and Outer Wilds, among others.

Sony would fire back in October by calling Tencent’s statement “nonsense” in a 42-page statement. The PlayStation maker said that “The damage is done—and it continues. SIE has already suffered injury by Tencent promoting its knock-off game, as made clear by the many instances of actual consumer confusion documented in the Complaint that Tencent does not—and cannot—challenge in its motion. The Court can redress past, ongoing, and imminent infringement.”

Among the actions noted in the filing are the fact that “there will be no new promotion or public testing of Light of Motiram during the pendency of the Motion for Preliminary Injunction,” and that “the Light of Motiram release will not be moved up to before Q4 2027,” as well as Tencent not being able to “seek expedited discovery in connection” with the motion.

The motion for preliminary injunction is slated to take place on December 17, with Sony’s deadline for filing its response to this motion being January 2, 2026. The main court hearing date on the motions for dismissal as well as for preliminary injunction are both slated to take place on January 29, 2026.

Sony had filed its lawsuit back in July, where it had referred to Light of Motiram as a “slavish clone” of the Horizon games. As part of this initial filing, the company had also confirmed that it was approached by Tencent for a collaboration on a new title in the franchise, but that this was ultimately declined. Sony alleges that Tencent went ahead and kicked off development of Light of Motiram. The console maker’s goal with the lawsuit is to seek monetary damages up to an unspecified amount, as well as a court order to block Tencent from violating the Horizon IP.

In response to this, Tencent had offered up its own statement, calling Sony’s lawsuit an “improper attempt to fence off a well-trodden corner of popular culture.”

“Plaintiff Sony has sued a grab-bag of Tencent companies – and ten unnamed defendants – about the unreleased video game Light of Motiram, alleging that the game copies elements from Sony’s game Horizon Zero Dawn and its spinoffs,” said Tencent about the lawsuit. “At bottom, Sony’s effort is not aimed at fighting off piracy, plagiarism, or any genuine threat to intellectual property.”

“It is an improper attempt to fence off a well-trodden corner of popular culture and declare it Sony’s exclusive domain,” the statement continued. “In Sony’s telling, Horizon Zero Dawn is ‘like no fictional world created before [or] since.’” Tencent calls this claim “startling, because it is flatly contradicted by Sony’s own developers, not to mention the long history of video games featuring the same elements that Sony seeks to monopolize through this lawsuit.”

While Tencent went ahead and referred to other popular media, including The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Biomutant, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, Far Cry Primal and Outer Wilds among many others that make use of similar aesthetics, Sony would fire back with its own statement weighing in at 42 pages in length, where the company would call Tencent’s lengthy statement “nonsense”.

Since the lawsuit, Tencent had also updated the Steam listing for Light of Motiram with brand new art work that removed the potential for comparison with the Horizon franchise.

God of War 

There aren’t many games that are able to deliver a stunning experience in such a smooth manner as Sony Santa Monica was able to do with the 2018 reboot. This story sets the protagonist in a new setting; new boss fights and outstanding level design. It’s both fresh and recognizable at the same time, and the new combat and the camera on offer also embodies the spirit of modern third person game while making it more intentional. The 2018 reboot is definitely one of the best games on the PS4, and is a great starting point for newcomers.

When asked about the differences between Decima Engine and Unreal Engine 5, Lee praised Guerrilla Games’ technical expertise, especially when it comes to Decima’s ability to deliver “stunning graphics and amazing asset quality”. He also noted that bringing over those high quality assets to work with Unreal Engine 5 posed its own set of challenges.

“Horizon Steel Frontiers is being developed using Unreal Engine 5,” said Lee. “The original Decima engine is incredible — it delivered stunning graphics and amazing asset quality that made Horizon so iconic. Bringing those high-quality resources over to Unreal Engine 5 was no small challenge.”

As for the development of the title. Lee also spoke about collaborating with Guerrilla Games to make sure that the artistic vision of the Horizon franchise would be captured perfectly with Horizon Steel Frontiers. He also spoke about the impressive capabilities of Unreal Engine 5 to accomplish this vision.

“We worked closely with Guerrilla to make sure we preserved the visual fidelity of the original, while creating gameplay that feels unique to Steel Frontiers,” he said. “Leveraging Unreal Engine 5’s powerful graphics capabilities, we’re able to deliver breathtaking visuals and smooth multiplayer experiences across both mobile and PC (PURPLE).”

Horizon Steel Frontiers was unveiled earlier this week, and will be coming to PC, iOS and Android. The title is set to feature many of the more iconic aspects of Guerrilla Games’ Horizon series, including the ability to use certain Machines as mounts to explore the world. However, along with this, it is also slated to feature plenty of its own unique gameplay features. Lee had spoken about these features during the title’s announcement.

“We’ve added unique, original gameplay elements to the process of taking down giant machines,” he said. “For example, after destroying a specific part of a machine, you can quickly approach and climb onto it using a Pullcaster, set traps on the damaged part, and inflict status effects.”

The MMO will focus around players gathering in the Deadlands alongside thousands of other hunters in order to take on the threat posed by the Machines. It was announced with a pair of trailers, one of which showcased the gameplay that made it quite easy to draw comparisons with Capcom’s Monster Hunter franchise.

NCSoft has also noted that Horizon Steel Frontiers is being developed by making extensive use of AI tools across its development pipeline, from programming to the creation of art. The company also noted that other studios are also using these tools, and that we will get to see more titles use the technology in similar ways moving forward.

Along with this, Guerrilla Games is also reportedly working on its own multiplayer game based on the Horizon universe. For more details, check out our coverage.

“Just to clear up some confusion I’ve seen, the newly announced NCSoft Horizon MMO is different from the multiplayer Horizon game that’s in development at Guerrilla Games,” wrote Schreier on social media. “That one is Guerrilla’s next big project.”

Whether this multiplayer game in development at Guerrilla Games will be a full-fledged sequel or a smaller project similar to Ghost of Tsushima’s Legends mode is currently unknown. However, with Schreier noting that the scale of the project is “big”, it is likely going to be a much more in-depth multiplayer experience rather than just being a spin-off.

While Guerrilla Games has been known for its work on the single-player-only Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West, the studio is far from a stranger to multiplayer titles. Guerrilla Games first started coming to prominence in the PS3 era thanks to its work on the Killzone franchise, which featured single-player campaigns as well as elaborate multiplayer competitive modes that showcased their FPS gameplay.

However, Killzone: Shadow Fall was the last title the studio had worked on in the franchise before eventually moving on to the Horizon series.

Horizon Steel Frontiers was officially unveiled earlier this month by NCSoft. The title doesn’t yet have a release date. However, the company has confirmed that it will be coming to PC, iOS and Android. NCSoft has described the multiplayer title as tapping into quite a few of the things that are iconic to the Horizon franchise while also featuring unique gameplay elements of its own.

“We’ve added unique, original gameplay elements to the process of taking down giant machines,” said executive producer Sung-Gu Lee during the announcement. “For example, after destroying a specific part of a machine, you can quickly approach and climb onto it using a Pullcaster, set traps on the damaged part, and inflict status effects.”

The title will also have quite a bit of emphasis on giving players plenty of customisation options, ranging from body type to hair and makeup and even the choice of tribe from between the Nora, the Tenakth, the Utaru and the Oseram.

“In Horizon Steel Frontiers, every player is a hero,” said Lee. “We’ve put great care into customization, allowing you to fully express your individuality—even down to the smallest details. During character creation, we’ve incorporated the tribes from the original Horizon world.”

Interestingly, NCSoft has also noted that it is making extensive use of AI for the development of Horizon Steel Frontiers. Among the things for which AI is being used include coding as well as art. The company also noted that other game development companies are also using similar tools, and that we will see it becoming a lot more common in the coming years.

Just to clear up some confusion I've seen, the newly announced NCSoft Horizon MMO is different from the multiplayer Horizon game that's in development at Guerrilla Games. That one is Guerrilla's next big project

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier.bsky.social) 2025-11-13T13:59:15.100Z

In his statement, Qizilbash noted that a working script has already been prepared, and that the production crew is currently looking for a director to head the project up. Along with this, he also confirmed that Sony wants the filming for the project to begin in 2026, and is eyeing a 2027 release.

“We are in development for a film based on Horizon in partnership with Columbia Pictures,” said Qizilbash. “We already have a working script and are actively searching for a director, with the goal of shooting the picture in 2026 and releasing it in 2027. The live-action film follows the recent collaborations between Columbia Pictures and PlayStation Productions on the 2022 film Uncharted and the 2023 film Gran Turismo.”

Qizilbash’s statement came as part of Sony establishing the importance of the Horizon IP, and especially its protagonist Aloy, as an important part of the PlayStation brand. In his statement, Qizilbash also referred to Aloy as a “key icon in the anticipated film,” and also called her important “to the flywheel of franchise building.”

It is worth noting that Qizilbash had said back in April that the Horizon adaptation was being turned into a TV show. In an interview, he spoke about wanting to ensure that the adaptation was done right, which in turn would bring in a greater audience to the project.

“I think what people have seen in Hollywood is that video game adaptations, if done right, can actually be very popular, and they scale really well,” said Qizilbash. “That’s been a big sea change that I’ve seen in the last five, six years, since we’ve really started to come and deliver some great content.” This, he noted, tied into his desire to turn the project into a TV show rather than a movie because “it just wasn’t creatively going how we wanted to.”

Sony had first announced that work on the Horizon adaptation had started back in January during CES 2025. At the time, few details had been confirmed about the project, however, aside from the fact that it would involve a collaboration between PlayStation Productions and Columbia Pictures. For context, Columbia Pictures had previously worked with Sony on the Uncharted movie adaptation as well.

In the meantime, PlayStation Productions is also working on a reboot of the Resident Evil movie franchise alongside rights-owner Constantin Film. The project is being co-written by Shay Hatten of Army of the Dead and John Wick: Chapter 4 fame, and Zach Cregger of Barbarian fame. Cregger is also working as the director on the project, with production duties up for grabs in a bidding war between big companies like Netflix and Warner Bros.

“Tencent remarkably contends [Sony Interactive Entertainment]’s claims are unripe because—despite having announced and continuously promoted its game for months—Tencent (purportedly) delayed Light of Motiram’s release until 2027 after SIE sued,” wrote Sony in its statement. “This is nonsense. The damage is done—and it continues. SIE has already suffered injury by Tencent promoting its knock-off game, as made clear by the many instances of actual consumer confusion documented in the Complaint that Tencent does not—and cannot—challenge in its motion. The Court can redress past, ongoing, and imminent infringement.”

Further in the document, the company also calls in to question Tencent’s claims that it shouldn’t fall under the jurisdiction of US-based courts, since Tencent Holdings is based out of the Cayman Islands. Sony noted that “this Court has jurisdiction over Tencent Holdings. The multi-billion dollar global conglomerate holds the U.S. trademark registration for the infringing game Light of Motiram and owns the domain registration for the official promotional website where much of the material giving rise tot he lawsuit was performed and distributed to a California and U.S. audience.”

Sony filed its lawsuit against Tencent in California back in July, accusing the company of stealing ideas from the Horizon franchise for upcoming title Light of Motiram. In its lawsuit, Sony called Tencent’s game a “slavish clone” of Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West, and has alleged that the release of Light of Motiram will end up causing consumer confusion.

As part of its filing, Sony also revealed that Tencent had initially approached the company for a collaboration for a new game in the Horizon franchise last year, but that it had declined this. Shortly afterwards, Tencent unveiled Light of Motiram. The goal of the lawsuit for Sony is monetary damages up to an unspecified amount, along with a court order to prevent Tencent from infringing on the Horizon IP.

In response to this lawsuit, Tencent had released its own statement, calling the company out for its “improper attempt to fence off a well-trodden corner of popular culture”.

“Plaintiff Sony has sued a grab-bag of Tencent companies – and ten unnamed defendants – about the unreleased video game Light of Motiram, alleging that the game copies elements from Sony’s game Horizon Zero Dawn and its spinoffs,” said Tencent about the lawsuit. “At bottom, Sony’s effort is not aimed at fighting off piracy, plagiarism, or any genuine threat to intellectual property.”

Tencent also noted other games from throughout the industry that also look similar to the aesthetics presented in Light of Motiram, including Far Cry: Primal, Far Cry: New Dawn, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, among others.

“Obviously one that comes up all the time is Mass Effect,” said King when asked about the projects that inspired Archetype Entertainment to make Exodus. “We obviously share some DNA. The epic space opera, the mega choices that carry over from game to game. Combat, we have a lot of stuff come up. Mass Effect, Horizon is probably another one we’ve drawn some inspiration from.”

While the Mass Effect inspiration might seem like a no-brainer for those aware of the development team behind Exodus and having seen its trailers, Horizon getting a shout-out might be more interesting. Robertson explained that Guerrilla Games’ Horizon series helped the studio figure out how to make elemental damage work in combat, as well as how to force players to make decisions about the things they are fighting.

“With Horizon, it’s that elemental aspect of combat, where you’ve got to make decisions based on the construction of the things that you’re fighting, and be smart about the tools that you use against it,” he explained. “There’s some cool things that we think we’ve pulled in from that.”

Interestingly, King also gives a shout out to seminal first-person metroidvania title Metroid Prime, noting that its focus on exploration helped the studio in how it structured out the worlds that players will get to explore in Exodus. “One of the things that really resonates is just like the exploration, hopping on a spaceship, kind of being out in the middle of nowhere. I kind of like the loneliness in that game. It just makes the environments really interesting.”

Exodus is being developed for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and is slated for release some time in 2026. The release window had been confirmed thanks to Archetype Entertainment’s parent company Hasbro making a note of it in its quarterly earnings report back in February. In the report, CEO Chris Cocks also said that Exodus will be the start of Hasbro’s push into self-publishing games.

“We have been investing in video games for over seven years through our portfolio of over a dozen projects in various stages of development coupled with 100+ licensing partnerships,” said Cocks. “I’m excited to show off our first project, Exodus, to the world when we launch it in 2026.”

In the meantime, check out details about one of the alien species that players will encounter during their time in Exodus – the Arkavir. In the game’s story, the Arkavir were designed to be the primary workforce for the Celestials in the Centauri Cluster while also being able to handle harsh and hostile environments. The Arkavir can also change up their physical form in order to make themselves more suited for specific harsh environments, from intense heat and unfathomable cold, to flesh-melting acid rain.

“Plaintiff Sony has sued a grab-bag of Tencent companies – and ten unnamed defendants – about the unreleased video game Light of Motiram, alleging that the game copies elements from Sony’s game Horizon Zero Dawn and its spinoffs,” said Tencent about the lawsuit. “At bottom, Sony’s effort is not aimed at fighting off piracy, plagiarism, or any genuine threat to intellectual property.”

“It is an improper attempt to fence off a well-trodden corner of popular culture and declare it Sony’s exclusive domain,” the statement continues. “In Sony’s telling, Horizon Zero Dawn is ‘like no fictional world created before [or] since.'” Tencent calls this claim “startling, because it is flatly contradicted by Sony’s own developers, not to mention the long history of video games featuring the same elements that Sony seeks to monopolize through this lawsuit.”

Further in its statement, Tencent even brings up comparisons made by art director of Horizon Zero Dawn, Jan-Bart Van Beek, drew with 2013 action adventure title Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.

“Sony’s complaint tellingly ignores these facts,” said Tencent. “Instead it tries to transform ubiquitous genre ingredients into proprietary assets. By suing over an unreleased project that merely employes the same time-honored tropes embraced by scores of other games released both before and after Horizon—like Enslaved, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Far Cry: Primal, Far Cry: New Dawn, Outer Wilds, Biomutant, and many more—Sony seeks an impermissible monopoly on genre conventions.”

Tencent then goes on to bring up faults in Sony’s complaints, such as the latter not alleging any facts that would implicate actions by Tencent under a jurisdiction where Sony would operate, as well as Sony’s lack of statement with regards to a claim for which relief could then be granted. “Instead, Sony’s threadbare, conclusory allegations improperly lump [Tencent America, Proxima Beta U.S. and Tencent Holdings] together with the foreign companies alleged to be responsible for the core conduct at issue.” Finally, Tencent also calls out Sony for “speculation regarding potential future conduct related to Light of Motiram’s forthcoming release”.

Sony had announced its lawsuit against Tencent for Light of Motiram back in July, with the allegations of it being a “slavish clone” of the Horizon titles that has the potential to confuse potential buyers because of the similarities between the how the titles look. In response to the lawsuit, Tencent had changed up some of its marketing for Light of Motiram, going as far as changing up the art work for the title that was being shown off on its Steam page. This includes the removal of any mentions of “colossal machines”.

That’s up significantly from the 32.7 million sales in May 2023. Sony didn’t break down the latest individual sales for Horizon Zero Dawn, Forbidden West and Call of the Mountain. It’s also unknown whether these include sales of the spin-off LEGO Horizon Adventures.

Horizon Forbidden West launched in February 2022 for PS4 and PS5, and sold 8.4 million copies as of 2023. It arrived for PC in March 2024. Horizon Zero Dawn received a remaster last year, but its sales haven’t been revealed.

A third game in the franchise is reportedly in the works, and Guerrilla is allegedly working with NCSoft on an online title (which may or may not have been cancelled). Neither has been officially revealed, so stay tuned for updates.