Sony and Tencent have agreed to pause all promotion and public testing for Light of Motiram as their Horizon lawsuit moves toward a major hearing in early 2026.
Sony’s lawsuit against Tencent over Light of Motiram has moved into a new phase, and this time both sides are slowing things down on paper while freezing things in practice. The Horizon maker is still pushing for a court order to block Tencent’s survival game, and now the case is lining up for a big hearing in early 2026.
At the same time, Tencent has agreed to keep Light of Motiram out of the spotlight for now. A new court filing says there will be no new marketing beats or public tests while Sony’s request for a preliminary injunction is being argued, and the game will not launch before its already delayed Q4 2027 window.
According to a stipulation and proposed order filed yesterday, and obtained by The Game Post, Sony and the Tencent entities jointly asked the court to extend their briefing schedule and to move the hearings on both the motion to dismiss and the injunction request to the same day in January 2026.
Sony and Tencent freeze Light of Motiram marketing in new court filing
The filing, filed on December 1, in the Northern District of California, shows that both sides say they have been “engaged in discussions in order to resolve the current dispute.” In the meantime, Sony agreed to give Tencent more time to respond to the injunction motion, but only with clear strings attached.
Under the deal, Tencent will not argue that the extra time means Sony delayed in seeking emergency relief. More importantly for players, the companies agree that there will be “no new promotion or public testing of Light of Motiram” while the injunction motion is pending.
Tencent also promises it will not move the game’s release to any date earlier than Q4 2027, and it will not ask the court for fast-tracked discovery tied to the injunction.
“SIE requested, and the Tencent Entities agreed, that (a) the extended briefing schedule and later requested hearing date will not be used to argue that SIE delayed in seeking a preliminary injunction, (b) there will be no new promotion or public testing of Light of Motiram during the pendency of the Motion for Preliminary Injunction, (c) the Light of Motiram release will not be moved up to before Q4 2027, and (d) the Tencent Entities will not seek expedited discovery in connection with the Motion for Preliminary Injunction,” the document reads.
On the timing side, Tencent’s opposition to Sony’s preliminary injunction is now set to land on December 17, 2025, instead of December 3. Sony’s reply is pushed to January 2, 2026. Both sides also ask Judge Jacqueline Corley to hear the motion to dismiss and the injunction request together on January 29, 2026, instead of the earlier January 15 date, subject to the court’s schedule.
That combined hearing matters. Tencent is still trying to throw out the case by arguing that Sony wants a monopoly on common genre ideas like red-haired heroes and robot creatures, and that the lawsuit targets “future conduct” for a game that has not released yet.
Sony, on the other hand, is asking for an order that would block Light of Motiram and bar Tencent from using a red-haired “tribal warrior huntress” that it says looks too close to Aloy. This new filing sits on top of months of back and forth.
Sony first sued in July, calling Light of Motiram a “slavish clone” and “knock off” of the Horizon series. In the background, the developer has already scrubbed the Steam page, swapped key art, and quietly delayed the game to late 2027.
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