A new court filing in Sony’s lawsuit against Tencent reveals that Tencent wanted to pitch The Last of Us game after Sony rejected its earlier Horizon project.
Sony’s ongoing lawsuit against Tencent just got more interesting. The lawsuit filed over Tencent’s upcoming title Light of Motiram, which Sony claims is a blatant Horizon clone, now includes a new filing that sheds light on how far Tencent allegedly went to work with Sony before things fell apart.
In a new opposition brief filed today, Sony not only pushed back against Tencent’s attempt to dismiss the case, but called its claims “nonsense” and that the company is “playing a shell game with its brands and entities” to avoid liability.
As part of the opposition filing, Sony included a declaration (seen by The Game Post) from Olivier Courtemanche, Head of Mobile at PlayStation Studios, offering a behind-the-scenes look at how talks between the two companies unfolded before things went south.
Courtemanche says his team traveled to Shenzhen, China, to explore possible partnerships with Tencent and its studios, including Aurora Studios, the same developer behind Light of Motiram.
A Meeting That Was Supposed to Be About The Last of Us
According to Courtemanche’s declaration, Tencent first floated a Horizon collaboration during a string of U.S.-based meetings, one at DICE in Las Vegas and another at GDC 2024 in San Francisco. The project, codenamed “Project Z,” was presented by staff from Tencent’s gaming division and Aurora Studio. Sony formally rejected the idea in an April 8, 2024 email, saying it wasn’t interested in licensing Horizon.
“At the Game Developers Conference in March 2024, in San Francisco, California, my team met with Tencent and individuals identified as being associated with Tencent’s Aurora Studios. Approximately 5 or 6 persons affiliated with Tencent attended the meeting, including Gary Clubb and Tian Xian,” Courtemanche’s deceleration reads.
“During the meeting, Tencent pitched a Horizon-themed project. Tencent also played a grainy video that was difficult to decipher. Tencent and Aurora Studios referred to this project as ‘Project Z.'”
On May 16, 2024, Tencent responded, saying its team wasn’t interested in working on anything other than Horizon, citing their passion and the work they’d already done on Project Z.
“The email stated that ‘For [the Aurora Studios team], Horizon was an IP that they were confident in adapting not only due to their deep passion for the game, but also given some of the parallels and points of connection to skillsets they have perfected while working on Project Z.'”
A few months later, in July 2024, Courtemanche and his team traveled to Shenzhen, China, to meet Tencent and its game studios, including Aurora Studios. According to him, Sony entered the meeting believing Aurora wanted to discuss a potential collaboration deal for The Last of Us. Instead, the presentation took a completely different turn.
“With respect to Aurora Studios, we went into the meeting under the impression that they wanted to do a potential collaboration for The Last of Us,” Courtemanche said. During Aurora’s presentation, a slide appeared showing “with images resembling a potential Horizon collaboration from the ‘Project Z’ concept discussed in March 2024.”
“I recall the slide featured a female character with costume design resembling Horizon’s mix of tribal clothing and metal armor, and a robot/animal hybrid resembling a Horizon robotic animal. Now that I have reviewed the promotional materials released for Light of Motiram, 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.
It’s an interesting detail because it shows there was once an opening, however brief, where Tencent and Sony might have worked together, not on Horizon, but The Last of Us. Yet that meeting seems to have solidified Sony’s frustration instead of building a bridge.
What do you think? Would you have been interested in a Last of Us game made by Tencent? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
