5 Video Game Companies That Opposed SOPA, And 5 That Didn't

Last month's victory over SOPA and PIPA's online censorship left many of us feeling quite smug. After all, it was a true victory for internet activism—it showed that when we work together, we can actually change the course of important events.

It also showed that some companies are willing to fight for what's right, and not just what boosts their bottom lines. A free and open internet is important to most gamers, and our industry would be a lot different today without it. You'd think gaming companies would realize that, but unfortunately, not all of them did.

We won a small victory last month, but with Europe's ACTA and who knows what else creeping up on the horizon, it's important to remember which companies did the right thing—and which didn't.

Epic adopted an anti-SOPA stance earlier than many other companies; on Jan. 4, a representative posted the following to the Gears of War dev's forums: "Epic Games supports efforts that would stop overseas websites profiting from pirating our games, but we have to do that in a way that's compatible with freedom of speech and due process of law. Thus, we do not support the current version of SOPA."

Fans appreciated them clarifying their stance on the bill, especially considering that they're members of the pro-SOPA Entertainment Software Association (more on the ESA later).

The Minecraft developer joined the internet-wide blackout that occurred on Jan. 18 by shutting down minecraft.net, mojang.com and playcobalt.com. Company lead Markus "Notch" Persson was quoted as saying, "No sane person can be for SOPA. I don’t know if we’re sane, but we are strongly, uncompromisingly against SOPA, and any similar laws. Sacrificing freedom of speech for the benefit of corporate profit is abominable and disgusting."

The good folks at Ludum Dare usually put on game development challenges where indie devs create games in just a day or a weekend. Their "Stop SOPA PIPA ACTA Game Jam" on January 18, the day of the blackouts, encouraged developers to produce something in protest of the damaging Acts. It may have had a bit of an identity crisis, but it was apparently a success.

In addition to going dark in protest on Jan. 18, MLG also removed all of their domains—over 100 of them—from GoDaddy's hosting service after the company came under fire for their SOPA support. We're guessing that wasn't easy, but GoDaddy was so damaged by the abandonment of MLG and others that they were actually bullied into changing their stance. Worth it!

Red 5 is not a large studio—they're made up of mostly former Blizzard employees, and so far they've got all of one game under their belt (Firefall, currently in beta). Yet they went further than any other game company we know of: in addition to blacking out the Firefall beta for a day, they pulled out of the ESA-run Electronic Entertainment Expo and started a grassroots group called the League for Gamers to help fight future legislation.

Pulling out of E3 is a big deal for a company this small, but as CEO Mark Kern told Ars Technica, "it will take sacrifice, but if we really want to have a voice, if you're as upset as I am with what's happening with corporate manipulation of interests in Washington, especially as in regards to our favorite pastime of gaming, this is what needs to be done. There isn't any other way to do it." Chills.

EA took the easy way out and claimed to be neutral, but we can't help thinking of that old expression, "if you're not with us, you're against us." Granted, their stance is less evil than their reputation would have had us predicting, but refusing to take a stance is the equivalent of standing by while a dude with a "save the whales" shirt gets pummeled by a bunch of rich punks. It's just not cool.

Sony may not have been vocal in their support of the bills, but reports that they'd backed off their position (along with Nintendo and EA) proved to be highly inaccurate. That includes our own report. Sony Pictures and Sony Music, members of the MPAA and RIAA respectively, were behind SOPA all the way. They were even targeted by Anonymous for it. How could SCEA, the branch behind our beloved games, be any different? Still, we expected more.

Capcom is one of the many, many companies that basically refused to take a stance. We're singling them out because they're a big deal. Also, because they tried to take a shit on gaming and tech journalists for reporting their exact statements. Very mature.

This one actually had us chuckling until we realized what Sega, those manipulative bastards, were doing. When their customer support responded to a gamer's SOPA query with instructions to reset their hardware, they decided to riff on themselves with a hilarious video. Ha. Good one. Now answer the question. No? Seriously? Sigh. Figures.

This is the big one. The Entertainment Software Association has done a lot over the years to protect game developers and publishers—it is their mission, after all. But apparently that protection doesn't extend to gamers themselves.

While they claimed they were working with legislators to iron out SOPA's kinks, they were, overall, adamantly in favor of the bill passing. And that extends to every one of their member companies that didn't come out and publicly state their opposition, like Epic did.

Oh, by the way, the ESA's rock-steady stance lasted until the bills were canned by Congress on Jan. 20, at which point they changed their minds. Literally. The same day. Lesson learned? Let's hope so.