A number of major game publishers have decided to join GoDaddy and pull their formal support for the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act. Joystiq reports that the US Congress House Judiciary Committee"s list of company supporters for SOPA now no longer includes Electronic Arts, Sony Electronics and Nintendo. Another game publisher, Microsoft, quietly decided to oppose SOPA in November.
None of the game companies have given any official comments about why they now oppose SOPA, which is scheduled to be voted on by the US Congress when they return to duty later in January. Certainly the act of supporting SOPA has proven costly for GoDaddy, at least on a PR level.
While Sony Electronics is now no longer an official SOPA supporter, other Sony divisions are still shown on the US Congress House Judiciary Committee"s list. Most importantly, the video game trade group the Entertainment Software Association, which also runs the E3 trade show, is also still listed as a SOPA backer. The ESA"s membership includes EA, Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft so by proxy those companies are technically still support the bill through the ESA. So far, the ESA has yet to comment about its own support of SOPA.