Sony allegedly travelled to Shenzhen, China in July 2024 to discuss the prospect of a mobile adaptation of The Last of Us with Tencent subsidiary Aurora Studios – the same team behind sued Horizon rip-off Light of Motiram.
The Game Post has been sharing fascinating new details from fresh court filings submitted earlier today. And it’s the first time we’ve gotten an insight into PS Mobile’s efforts – the division fronted by former Zynga exec Olivier Courtemanche, which has yet to ship a product.
According to a testimony from Courtemanche, Sony met with Aurora Studios at GDC in 2024, where it was pitched on the previously reported Horizon spin-off for mobile.
It’s alleged this would later become Light of Motiram, but originally was intended to depict Aloy in an Asian setting, with robotic creatures inspired by Chinese legends.
Sony pretty promptly rejected the project in April 2024, a month after GDC. But it would later travel to China in July 2024 to meet with Aurora Studios again.
What’s fascinating about this is that Courtemanche and his team believed they were visiting Shenzhen to see a mobile adaptation of The Last of Us – but were simply presented a version of Horizon again.
Courtemanche is quoted as saying:
“I recall the slide featured a female character with costume design resembling Horizon’s mix of tribal clothing and metal armour, 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.”
Sony is obviously using this detail to build a case against Tencent, but it also gives us some fascinating insight into the inner-workings of PS Mobile, a secretive division that the firm’s been trying to get off the ground for several years now.
The testimony raises a few questions: why was the platform holder firmly against Aurora Studios’ take on Horizon, but open to its ideas for The Last of Us franchise?
Could it be because Korean studio NCSoft is reportedly working on a Horizon MMO?
And if Sony has been actively meeting with major companies like Tencent over potential mobile projects, how come nothing has surfaced yet? Surely some deals must have been signed by now.
We imagine the platform holder would have preferred this information to stay private, but as was the case with Xbox’s acquisition of Activision, high-profile court cases like this usually result in secrets surfacing.
A mobile The Last of Us, eh? Now that’s interesting.