Red 5 Studios To Join Reddit In SOPA Protest

Red 5 Studios, developer of the upcoming MMO Firefall, will join Reddit in protesting SOPA on January 18th.

While Wikipedia has one foot in the water about joining Reddit in their SOPA protest, Red 5 Studios, developer of the upcoming MMO Firefall, has no such reservations. Support for the protest, or even just general animosity toward SOPA, has been minimal from video game developers and publishers, but Red 5 Studios intends to break that notion and stand out from the crowd. Speaking on behalf of Red 5 Studios, CEO Mark Kern had the following to say:

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.

In addition to shutting down their website, Red 5 Studios also plans on shutting down the beta for Firefall during the protest. To further show their disgust for the ESA, Red 5 Studios has cancelled their appearance at E3 2012, and while it will be disappointing to not see Firefall demo, it’s great to a company stick to its convictions. Not to mention, this is quite the PR opportunity for Red 5 Studios to build ideological support for both its products and brand.

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