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Sacred Symbols+, Episode 471 | Moriarty x Hoeg: Temu Horizon in Peril
🕑 Added 2025-08-02 16:00:19 +0000 UTCIt's me, Colin! Please welcome lawyer, friend, and long-time collaborator Rick Hoeg back to Sacred+ for another journey through various legal happenings in and around our industry. Today, Rick and I spend most of our time digging through Sony's recently-filed lawsuit against Tencent, its Level Infinite publishing arm, and other entities, claiming that its Light of Motiram project is an obvious (and even intentional) copy of Horizon. And if what Sony claims throughout its lawsuit is true, Tencent is going to have a very hard time squeezing out of this one. Join us as we go through the suit in detail, draw out lots of interesting facts, questions, and anecdotes, and wonder more than once: What the hell was Tencent thinking, anyway? Later, we touch on two other topics of interest in the form of Steam and itch.io's recent problems with the likes of Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal, and ongoing litigation between South Korean publisher Krafton and its fully-owned team Unknown Worlds. Do enjoy.
Comments
Devon McCarty
Man I learned a ton from this conversation! I like the sandwich analogy as it pertains to a legal document and hearing how disappointed Hoeg is in Steam. Looking forward to more of these.
Billy Bong Baggins
I second this
Glen Yelenovic
Fantastic episode. I always love to hear Hoeg.
Aaron B Vick
I understand what you're saying, but Tencents CCP influence (like you said, whatever that is) doesn't have much reach beyond China. If they so to speak, "take their toys home", then what does that do for us outside the walls of China? Is Sony so locked into Tencent programs and products that they would be undone, I don't think so. If anything this is a great reminder to China that they may be able to get away with Intellectual Theft within their own society, the rest of the world understands that it is undesirable, and Sony could lead the way in holding them accountable for these Intellectual crimes. Maybe the CCP denies the manufacturing of PS consoles in country. I imagine any company doing manufacturing in China has an exit plan for when China turns really ugly.
Maid Addison94
100% with Hoeg on the de listing of the games, its not easy defending these games but we must hold the line as far back as possible.
Guybrush Threepwood
Only thing Colin said that I questioned was "I think Sony can hurt Tencent more than Tencent can hurt Sony." Not sure about this. Tencent is a very powerful company, and owns some of the most used social media apps on the planet. And they have some kind of relation to the Chinese Communist Party. Who knows what that is, but I would not assume Tencent is less powerful than Sony.
