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Tencent says it's not ripping off Horizon Zero Dawn, calls it derivative

Tencent argues that Aloy isn't even that central to Sony's brand, among other things in a court filing seeking to dismiss a lawsuit over 'ripoff' game

www.polygon.com

Tencent punches back at Horizon Zero Dawn lawsuit, says game isn't that unique

Company argues that Aloy isn't even that central to the brand, among other things

Tencent calls the lawsuit "startling," saying that Sony is being overly defensive about game features that are commonly found in popular video games.

To highlight its point, Tencent pulls out a quote from Sony where the publisher claims that Horizon Zero Dawn is "like no fictional world created before [or] since." Tencent argues that Horizon Zero Dawn itself is a derivative game when you consider the "the long history of video games featuring the same elements that Sony seeks to monopolize through this lawsuit." Tencent also points to a behind-the-scenes documentary where Horizon Zero Dawn's art director compares the game to Enslaved: Odyssey to the West while expressing worry that the two concepts were too similar.

Here's Tencent's take, from a recent court filing:

By suing over an unreleased project that merely employs 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 argues that Sony's claims are speculative, based on what it assumes the unreleased Light of Motiram will be like. Given that Motiram's release date is still two years away, the end product could be quite different from what Sony alleges it will be.

 

[LakeOf9]

Horizon might not be that unique (it's a bog standard Ubisoft style open world game), but this Tencent game is very obviously riffing off imagery that is uniquely identifiable with Horizon. I don't think it is at all controversial to say that, even if you don't find Horizon particularly unique or great.

 

[GrayChild]

WTF I love Tencent now...?!

And while I wouldn't call Horizon derivative (at least when it comes to its universe), it was boring and forgettable as hell. Which, at times is even worse.

Guerilla should just stick to doing Decima and license it out to studios that can actually make something great.

 

[cireza]

Cancel a couple more GaaS games and get the money back, we are going to court against Tencent.

 

[adamsapple]

 

[Mr Moose]

That explains why they wanted to licence it.

 

[Guilty_AI]

They're being sleazy here, but i hope sony loses this. We don't need gigantic corps getting confortable suing others over shit like this.

 

[diffusionx]

Tencent needs better lawyers, it's not speculative at all when Sony used all the Tencent promo material in their lawsuit. Stuff they changed up online after the lawsuit got filed.

This is without even getting into how Tencent tried to make this an official licensed Horizon game in the first place.

 

[adamsapple]

Tencent says it's not ripping off Horizon Zero Dawn, calls it derivative

 

[Donald mac Ronald]

A Chinese company doing a blatant rip off, of someone else's work.

Didn't see that coming.

 

[Dacvak]

Yall remember the shameless ripoff games Game Loft used to make, back in the early iPhone days? I was always surprised they never got sued for those.

 

[adamsapple]

Yall remember the shameless ripoff games Game Loft used to make, back in the early iPhone days? I was always surprised they never got sued for those.

Was this tencent game also a mobile only or was this coming to console/PC too?

 

[Brigandier]

Yeah they're going to get fucked in a lawsuit it's blatant plagiarism.

 

[Dacvak]

Was this tencent game also a mobile only or was this coming to console/PC too?

Not all of them, but a handful of the gameloft ripoff games did come to Switch and PC.

 

[hououinkyouma00]

They're being sleazy here, but i hope sony loses this. We don't need gigantic corps getting confortable suing others over shit like this.

So instead we should let other gigantic corporations steal intellectual property?

Also not trying to blanket statement an entire country because there are plenty of non scummy Chinese countries but we are talking about a country that already gets away with stealing almost everything.

This is one of the most retarded fucking posts I've literally ever seen. Resetera tier post.

 

[reinking]

Tencent argues that Sony's claims are speculative, based on what it assumes the unreleased Light of Motiram will be like. Given that Motiram's release date is still two years away, the end product could be quite different from what Sony alleges it will be.

It will be now.

 

[Pelao]

calls it derivative

I mean, he's right.
It's your typical Ubisoft open world game, but with Zoids.

 

[Durin]

Sony same company that owns Bungie that steals from smaller artists, and only backtracked when caught. Let them fight.

 

[EN250]

Specially when talking about the wooden plank redhead, all the charm the game has its got to do with the robodinos, not the lame ass characters...

 

[Dacvak]

Sony same company that owns Bungie that steals from smaller artists, and only backtracked when caught. Let them fight.

Tencent owns so much of the gaming industry. Last I checked they had significant shares in almost all of the big publishers, and own like 40% of Epic or something. It's kind of insane.

 

[March Climber]

It will be now.

Fear not, people here who want 'inspired' gameplay and aesthetic wrapped in a gacha, your game will be saved after some tweaks.

 

[Loomy]

They're being sleazy here, but i hope sony loses this. We don't need gigantic corps getting confortable suing others over shit like this.

Tencent is literally larger than Sony Corp. More than than twice the market cap.

WTF I love Tencent now...?!

And while I wouldn't call Horizon derivative (at least when it comes to its universe), it was boring and forgettable as hell. Which, at times is even worse.

Guerilla should just stick to doing Decima and license it out to studios that can actually make something great.

Lol Horizon being "boring and forgettable" has nothing to do with the problem here. Tencent asked Sony if they could make a Horizon game. Sony said no. So Tencent ripped off the game and made their own.

Unless you're suggesting theft is fine if it's stealing from someone you don't like?

Reminder of what Tencent is trying to defend here:

 

[demigod]

So instead we should let other gigantic corporations steal intellectual property?

Also not trying to blanket statement an entire country because there are plenty of non scummy Chinese countries but we are talking about a country that already gets away with stealing almost everything.

This is one of the most retarded fucking posts I've literally ever seen. Resetera tier post.

No kidding, dude needs to get off the net and stop posting.

 

[Begleiter]

Imagine being worried your game is too similar to Enslaved. Embarrassing.

I still think this is a vanity suit - Hulst being mad someone is imitating his darling Horizon. Gameloft was doing this stuff for years.

 

[analog_future]

alright which one of you works for tencent

 

[Durin]

Tencent owns so much of the gaming industry. Last I checked they had significant shares in almost all of the big publishers, and own like 40% of Epic or something. It's kind of insane.

Yeah, they're kind of a megacorp of game devs. Can't say I'm really a fan of them either, but I don't really like most corpos in games in general now. Valve maybe my only exception because they're at least not publicly-traded and invest in Linux, but as a customer all I can hope for is them actually making something entertaining vs putting out slop.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

The thing is that the Tencent game plays nothing like Horizon. It's a Monster Hunter-like MMO that just looks like Horizon in the promotional stuff because they pitched it as a new Horizon game. If you remove that, you would never think it's a copy. Their mistake was not to delete that promotional art for the game reveal.

I know this is too nuanced and takes a 1% of brain power to digest.

On the other hand, HZD is derivative, too. Aloy is a blatant copy of Ayla, the main character of the Cave Bear Saga. Whoever thinks this is original has very little background.

 

[Guilty_AI]

So instead we should let other gigantic corporations steal intellectual property?

it's still better than letting gigantic corporations sue who they feel like. I don't trust sony nearly enough to make this a one-time thing.

Also not trying to blanket statement an entire country because there are plenty of non scummy Chinese countries but we are talking about a country that already gets away with stealing almost everything.

theres only one chinese country, or two depending on your views on geopolitics.

 

[CentralScrutinizer]

Yeah they're going to get fucked in a lawsuit it's blatant plagiarism.

What's your view on Palworld vs Pokemon?

 

[diffusionx]

So instead we should let other gigantic corporations steal intellectual property?

Also not trying to blanket statement an entire country because there are plenty of non scummy Chinese countries but we are talking about a country that already gets away with stealing almost everything.

This is one of the most retarded fucking posts I've literally ever seen. Resetera tier post.

like I said in the other thread, people just become retards when it comes to these topics.

Also siding with Tencent over Sony because of "muh giant corpo" - like come on, what are we even doing here.

 

[Arsic]

 

[Draugoth]

Basically the same logic AI companies use to justify mass infrigment

 

[semiconscious]

Specially when talking about the wooden plank redhead, all the charm the game has its got to do with the robodinos, not the lame ass characters...

this. aloy isn't central to the brand (despite whatever hermen hulst says/thinks)...

 

[Hero_Select]

"Wow look at these copied character models. Tencent sucks"

"Palworld didn't copy Pokemon designs. Nintendo sucks"

Make up your minds people.

 

[Loomy]

Specially when talking about the wooden plank redhead, all the charm the game has its got to do with the robodinos, not the lame ass characters...

And they ripped that off too. So what are we talking about here?

 

[AmuroChan]

They're being sleazy here, but i hope sony loses this. We don't need gigantic corps getting confortable suing others over shit like this.

Which one is the gigantic corp in your statement? Tencent is 4.5x larger than Sony by market cap, and has the backing of the CCP.

 

[demigod]

"Wow look at these copied character models. Tencent sucks"

"Palworld didn't copy Pokemon designs. Nintendo sucks"

Make up your minds people.

Palworld IS a copy of pokemon designs.

 

[Bry0]

A small minority of you guys seem completely incapable of looking at anything objectively without your personal feelings about a product or brand completely coloring your perception and opinion.

It's actually astonishing how terrible the resulting opinion ends up being.

 

[Loomy]

Palworld IS a copy of pokemon designs.

Yeah. Proven to have literally traced over Pokemons to create their Pals.

 

[lh032]

look i dont like the horizon franchise that much but tencent is just bsing here.

Some of you people are just sad lol

 

[Doomtrain]

"This game that we shamelessly ripped off isn't actually that interesting" isn't the defense they think it is.

 

[pulicat]

"Wow look at these copied character models. Tencent sucks"

"Palworld didn't copy Pokemon designs. Nintendo sucks"

Make up your minds people.

This is true; whoever supported Palworld needs to stand united against Sony too in this case and rally behind Tencent.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Which one is the gigantic corp in your statement? Tencent is 4.5x larger than Sony by market cap, and has the backing of the CCP.

Could be 100x times larger than sony, i don't give a shit, what matters is the one suing over "game looks too much like ours". That's a dangerous slippery slope i'll never be confortable with.

 

[The_Mike]

I mean, come on, I didn't like horizon, but saying it's not unique is quite a stretch.

Even a casual gamer knows, or can at least to some degree identify Horizon because of the robots, aloy, the nature.

And I am certain that these casual gamers would see the pictures of the other game as something inside the horizon universe.

 

[pulicat]

And they ripped that off too. So what are we talking about here?

Horizon ripped off robot dinos from Zoids

 

[EN250]

And they ripped that off too. So what are we talking about here?

And Japan did it before with Zoids, though it wasn't just robodinos, but the whole ass fauna, and then it was Beast Wars Transformers, it's not something mind-blowingly amazing that was never thought before, going by that logic then Nintendo is right and should start patenting everything since they were making games before anyone else currently, right?

 

[ZehDon]

I'm not even a fan of Horizon and even I had to do a double take on this one. It's pretty blatant. Chinese companies do not give a fuck.

 

[Loomy]

And Japan did it before with Zoids, though it wasn't just robodinos, but the whole ass fauna, and then it was Beast Wars Transformers, it's not something mind-blowingly amazing that was never thought before, going by that logic then Nintendo is right and should start patenting everything since they were making games before anyone else currently, right?

Horizon ripped off robot dinos from Zoids

Yes, robot dinos aren't new. But look at the picture again. They didn't just make any random robot dinos. They made some that look almost exactly like the ones designed specifically for Horizon. And then they put them in promo material that blatantly rips off Horizon. All this after Sony rejected their pitch for a Tencent made Horizon game.

These are very different situations.

 

[AmuroChan]

Could be 100x times larger than sony, i don't give a shit, what matters is the one suing over "game looks too much like ours". That's a dangerous slippery slope i'll never be confortable with.

For most instances, I would agree, but this is clearly blatant. Tencent literally went to Sony, showed them the game, and asked them to license the Horizon name to them so they can release it as a Horizon game.

 

[Hero_Select]

Palworld IS a copy of pokemon designs.

I know, I agree XD