Sony sues Tencent over ‘blatant’ Horizon clone, Reality Labs remains a money pit, and Microsoft just became PlayStation’s top publisher

I can hardly believe it’s Friday. I rolled into the week feeling a tad sorry for myself after celebrating England’s seemingly inevitable Euro 2025 victory over Spain with one too many beers and a now-traditional karaoke session with friends in Manchester’s Chinatown district.

I know what you’re thinking, and I’m more than happy to confirm I delivered delicious renditions of Fall Out Boy classic Sugar We’re Going Down and infectious Shania Twain bop Man I Feel Like A Woman. My fans (all eight of them) were understandably in awe.

The rest of my week consisted of belting out news through the digital medium better known as Game Developer dot com—and there was plenty to digest.

Financial season means we gleaned insights into the inner-workings of Meta, EA, and Microsoft (and their respective corporate deities). In what’s becoming something of a trend, another major game company became embroiled in legal proceedings—but this week it was Tencent’s turn to feel the wrath of the merciless court filing after Sony took the conglomerate to task for allegedly producing a “slavish” Horizon clone. The claws were out in that one.

As always, we’ve gathered all the must-read headlines and gossip for your viewing pleasure. Grab a pew and have a gander.

Related:Mark DeLoura joins GDC as executive director of innovation and growth

via Game Developer // In what was perhaps the biggest story in a rather dense news week, Sony filed a lawsuit against Chinese conglomerate Tencent for attempting to produce what it described as a “slavish clone” of its popular Horizon franchise. The company claimed Tencent’s upcoming survival adventure, Light of Motiram, is a “blatant” and “unlawful” copy of its own sci-fi series. Tencent describes the game as taking place in a “world overrun by colossal machines” on its Steam store page. Sound familiar? Sony wants a court to prevent Tencent from marketing and distributing the title, and in a wild twist even alleges that Tencent sought to license the Horizon IP in 2024 before revealing Light of Motiram a few months later. Get the popcorn in. 

via Game Developer // It’s in the game—or at least, it used to be. EA boss Andrew Wilson claims EA Sports will transcend its humble origins as a mere video game studio to become the “‘most valuable sports business in the world.” He made the rather zealous proclamation during the company’s latest earnings call, and suggested the burgeoning division will continue to explore ways to engage and integrate with real-world sports teams and their fans to cultivate “deeply immersive, socially driven experiences.”

Related:Itch.io begins reindexing free adult content and plans to ‘slowly’ reintroduce paid content

via Game Developer // Meta’s freewheeling metaverse division, Reality Labs, continues to use cash as kindling. The business lost $4.5 billion during the second quarter of the current fiscal year, with Meta attributing those losses (jn part) to declining Quest headset sales. Reality Labs was wrestled into being to fulfil Meta’s grandiose metaverse ambitions, but has now lost over $56 billion since 2022. I wish I had that sort of pocket change. 

via Game Developer // Xbox’s decision to pull major first-party franchises such as Forza, Gears of War, and Indiana Jones over to PlayStation might’ve raised eyebrows in some rather entrenched corners of the industry, but it looks like that gambit is paying off. During a recent earnings call, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company was “the top publisher on both Xbox and PlayStation” during the last quarter thanks to the successful launches Forza Horizon 5 and Oblivion Remastered. He also confirmed the company has 40 titles in development across its studios, which recently suffered another round of layoffs at the hands of the U.S. company. 

Related:The Switch 2 has sold over 6 million units worldwide

via Game Developer // Madrid-based studio Aheartfulofgames came out swinging this week and accused its parent company Outright Games of mismanagement and neglect after being marked for closure. The team, known for working on licensed titles like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed, said they have been abandoned so their parent company can prioritize “low-cost, fast-turnaround projects.” They also allege that Outright outsourced work that could have been handled internally to justify the closure. “They have made it clear this isn’t an economic decision, but the economic context provides them an explanation for what they are doing—but they are not losing money, they’re gaining less,” said one source.

via The Verge // The Pokemon Company made the rather unprecedented move of yanking two rare (digital) trading cards out of players’ hands this week after Chinese artist lanjiujiu pointed out they appeared to incorporate traced versions of their original fan artwork. Pokemon TCG Pocket’s immersive Ho-Oh card (from the new Wisdom of Sea and Sky expansion) featured an image of the legendary bird that was almost identical to one created by lanjiujiu. Although The Pokemon Company has a legal right to use fan artwork, the company replaced the Ho-oh EX card and its Lugia EX counterpart with placeholders and said its production team had provided “incorrect reference materials” as official documents to the illustrator commissioned to produce the artwork. It has now launched an investigation to ensure “no similar issues exist in the game.”

via IWGB Game Workers // UK game workers union IWGB has published an open letter to Labour ministers Sir Chris Bryant MP and Charlotte Nichols MP to demand a seat on the government’s new UK Video Game Council. The union also criticised the makeup of the council, which is dominated by members who work at companies in London and the South of England. “The UK Video Games Council includes no trade unions, no worker representatives, and no voices from grassroots initiatives, that have supported vulnerable workers for years,” reads the letter. “How can a body responsible for shaping the future of digital play ignore the very people making video games?” It’s a fair question. Reckon we’ll get an answer?

via Aftermath // Steam and itch.io have been rooted in the headlines over the past two weeks after choosing to curb support for adult content on their respective platforms at the behest of payment providers like Visa and Mastercard. Steam and Itch said the popular payment services objected to the sale of NSFW content, forcing them to change their rules. It turns out, however, that a group called Collective Short, which professes to fight “sexploitation” was at least partially to blame for the wave of censorship that washed across the game industry almost overnight. Now, Aftermath has spoken with those who are attempting to form a counter-campaign and force payment companies and game platforms to rethink their stance by weaponizing the power of… phone calls?

via Game Developer // In this long-read straight out of Brazil, we sit down with a number of local developers and advocates to understand where the region is excelling when it comes to producing video games and where there is room for improvement. During our conversations with industry experts on the Gamescom Latam 2025 show floor, we got the overwhelming sense that Brazil is. country brimming with talent—but one that perhaps lacks the experience needed to truly establish itself in a increasingly competitive (and hostile) market. What’s the solution? Come and find out.