Stand down, great lawyer-machines of the courtly plains. Sony and Tencent’s legal scuffle over alleged Horizon “clone” Light of Motiram has ended with a “confidential settlement”. As part of that arrow-flinging cessation, Tencent appear to have packed Light of Motiram away and pulled it from PC stores.
So, it would certainly seem, endeth a bout of copyright-based conflict which kicked off in July, when Sony brought about legal action accusing Tencent-published tribals fight machines game Light of Motiram of being a “slavish clone” of their Horizon series about tribals fight machines. Tencent disputed that, filing a motion to dismiss the case, to which sony brought out a big cannon with the word “nonsense” written on it.
According to a court document filed this week and spotted by The Verge, the two companies have asked the courts to dismiss the case following the reaching of a settlement. The details of the settlement have been withheld, as is often the case, meaning there’s no info here as to who paid or agreed to what before the big handshake.
There is one aspect which we can see – Light of Motiram’s disappeared from both Steam and the Epic Games store. You’ll not find the listing for it here or here, despite the game’s website still pointing to those links. Meanwhile, SteamDB says the app’s been retired.
Thus, it appears, will probably end the tale of Light of Motiram. Well, at least in the Horizon-esque guise it’s had up to this point. The two great machine titans behind these games can now rest, their wrestling match having concluded in peace. Sure, a bunch of money and/or villages depending on whether you want to stick to the metaphor have likely been burned in sacrifice to the mighty beings who live on litigation mountain, but at least it hasn’t dragged on for too long.
Hopefully it also won’t result in any negative consequences for the developers on the ground, who I imagine have had to sit back and watch this costly fight with bated breath.
