Red 5 Studios—the developers of Firefall, and former Blizzard Entertainment veterans—have come out swinging against SOPA by canceling their E3 plans and pledged their solidarity with Reddit.
E3, the annual entertainment trade show, is run by the Entertainment Software Association. The ESA openly supports the proposed SOPA law, having written an open letter to Congress urging them to pass the bill.
Unlike other studios which remained largely mum on the subject, or dodged it by claiming to "not support SOPA in its current form" like Epic Games, Red 5 Studios spoke out against the bill and the ESA.
Gaming news site Shacknews asked Red 5 Studios' Mark Kern if the developer supported the ESA. He replied, "No we are not, and now we will never be." Kern added that they will not attend E3 or any other ESA-sponsored events unless the organization reverses its stance.
Additionally, Red 5 Studios will be shutting its beta down for 24 hours in solidarity with the Reddit-promoted SOPA blackout on January 18.
"Red 5 Studios is joining Reddit in protest of SOPA by going dark on January 18. We will be taking down our website, community site and Firefall beta for 24 hours on the 18th. We are extremely disappointed in this misguided legislation. We are also ashamed of the ESA for supporting a bill which is clearly not in the best interests of gamers or the game industry.
This bill, and it's sister bill, Protect IP, will shut down live streaming, shout casting, user generated content and have a chilling effect on game innovation and social media.
Most of all, it hurts the smaller game companies, who will not have the legal resources or lobbying presence to protect themselves from unwarranted shutdown.
We issue a call to all our industry peers, including developers, publishers and game press, to join us in letting the ESA know they do not represent our views on this issue, and strongly oppose SOPA and PIPA."
