Riot Games, makers of the real-time strategy game League of Legends, joined the concert of opposition to SOPA/PIPA yesterday in a statement posted on the League of Legends website. While SOPA has been detailed before with how it will affect other aspects of online activity, this is a notable endorsement of the anti-SOPA movement from the land of gamers.

In the post, Riot Games are clear to point out that, while they are opposed to online piracy, the current form of SOPA leaves much to be concerned about with how it “threatens any website that features user-generated content.” The author of the post, Ryze, goes on to list specific ways in which League of Legends will be impacted:

The post also includes a link to an Ask Me Almost Anything (AMAA) on Reddit from one of Riot Games Layers, wherein he is answered questions about Riot’s position yesterday. In the thread, their attorney says that while they’re not exactly included a full blackout of Riot Games on January 18th, they are pursuing further anti-SOPA actions that he described as “public-facing” although some of it will be “more calculated to maximize legislative impact against this bill.” Ultimately, he says, “We’re not just saying ‘we hate SOPA!’ and going away.”

Following Riot Games statement, a press release was issued by Change.org this morning in regard to the 100,000+ gamers and “concerned Internet users” who are calling on Electronic Arts to publicly oppose SOPA. So far, 112K people have added their name to the petition (their goal is to achieve 150,000 signatures). From the release:

“As much as I agree that copyright law needs to be enforced, this legislation represents a blatant trespass of corporate lobbyists upon small businesses, and I cannot support it, nor can I endorse anyone who does,”said Shashank Katsurirangan, a fan of EA’s sports games and Battlefield and Command & Conquer franchises. “As a passionate gamer, I have a lot of respect for independent game designers who share and advertise their games through file and video sharing sites like YouTube and RapidShare. Also, as an amateur musician, my primary outlet for sharing my work is through free media like YouTube. SOPA allows for consumers to be denied access to these sites upon detection of any copyright infringing material, inflicting severe collateral damage upon independent artists and game designers whose only publicity comes from free media sites.”

EA has not issued a statement concerning the petition at this time. It remains to be seen if petitions like these can convince some of the major Internet players (such as the Googles and the Facebooks) to come off of the sidelines and take a more active role in opposing SOPA.

Barry Cottle, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA Interactive, explained in a statement, "Social gaming, with its emphasis on friends and community, is seeing tremendous growth and this is the right time to invest to strengthen our participation in this space."

Indeed, Playfish should make a good partner for EA.  The company describes itself as a leader in the social gaming industry, and has received backing from Accel Partners (which also invested in Facebook) and Index Ventures (which put its weight behind Last.fm and Skype).

Moreover, Playfish claims that over 150 million of its games have been installed.  (Playfish’s top games are Country Story, Pet Society, Restaurant City, and Who Has The Biggest Brain? in case you’re curious.)

And that large number brings us back to the matter of Playfish’s price.  EA’s paying $275 million in cash and $25 million in "equity retention arrangements" up front.  Then, as much as $100 million more will be delivered if unspecified performance milestones are met between now and the end of 2011.

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Due to a recent development with our song licenses on The Sims On Stage, some of your webcam Karaoke performances will no longer be available after Wednesday, August 20th.

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira at The Industry Standard reports that users of the site were emailed the message, which also said that other songs would no longer have video recording options.

On the surface, this would seem like a "who cares" situation, but it brings up a question of where the music industry authorities are drawing the line.

"If they are after a section of EA as small as The Sims On Stage, I have to wonder what else they are looking at," says Aleo-Carreira.

Mike Masnick at TechDirt says, "You get the feeling that the recording industry would go after people singing in the shower if they could."

By the sounds of it, they could do just that if a video of that shower were posted online. If I were you, I’d steer clear of posting videos of yourself singing a drunken Karaoke rendition of Dream Warriors at last year’s Christmas party on YouTube. Of course, it will probably be your co-workers that you get you on that one.

EA‘s data suggests that Microsoft sold about two million more units in North America during 2007, but that Sony will draw even this year.  The tiebreaker should take place in Europe, where the Playstation 3 has sold better, and according to EA, will continue to do so.

It’s hard to feel too certain about these forecasts, since EA’s numbers allow for two million units’ worth of wiggle room.  But even as Peter Kafka (correctly) points out, "the PS3 remains a difficult platform for developers to work with," EA’s semi-endorsement makes it seem like this is one area in which Microsoft won’t be declaring victory.

Meanwhile, in what may be a response to the possible acquisition of Yahoo, or to the release of SP1 for Vista, Microsoft’s stock is up slightly.