Sony lawsuit reveals Tencent was also working on a Last of Us game alongside Horizon

Sony is currently locked in a legal battle with Tencent due to the latter’s announcement of Light of Motiram – an open world game which looks eerily similar to PlayStation’s Horizon Zero Dawn / Forbidden West franchise. Previous revelations from the lawsuit included the fact that Tencent had previously pitched a Horizon game to Sony – which the console maker rejected. That said, this wasn’t the only potential project, with the two companies at one point planning to work on a new game based on The Last of Us.

As reported by the publication TheGamePost, a recent court filing by Sony revealed that the PlayStation maker and Tencent were at one point planning to collaborate on a Last of Us project, with PlayStation Studios’ Olivier Courtemanche stating:

“With respect to Aurora Studios [the team behind Light of Motiram], we went into the meeting under the impression that they wanted to do a potential collaboration for The Last of Us”. This was in the wake of Sony having already rejected their pitch for a Horizon title (which was codenamed project Z).

That said, according to Courtemanche the meeting took a different turn, with the pitch including “images resembling a potential Horizon collaboration from the ‘Project Z’ concept discussed in March 2024,” adding that “I believe that these images contained assets from the Light of Motiram game. I was confused by the slide given that we had rejected a potential Horizon collaboration and thought we were there to discuss The Last of Us, among other opportunities.”

Given just how close Sony seems to hold The Last of Us to their chest, it is interesting to see that the console maker had rejected a pitch for Horizon, but was willing to work on a new Last of Us with Tencent.

Of course, both deals ultimately fell through, with Tencent then going on to announce Light of Motiram – leading Sony to file this lawsuit…and the rest is history.

Regardless, it appears as though the events leading up to this lawsuit were perhaps even more messy than original thought. It will be curious to see how the lawsuit proceeds – and whether any other secret cancelled projects are brought to light as a result.

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KitGuru says: What do you think of the lawsuit in general? Does Sony have a solid case? Would you have preferred Tencent to make a licensed Horizon or Last of Us game? Let us know down below.

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