[Update] The list in question, referenced below, never actually featured the names of Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo. The three companies in question signed themselves onto a letter from the US Chamber of Commerce which urged Congress to support something like SOPA, but it was never an official endorsement of the act itself. This letter was signed before SOPA was brought forward.

These companies are in favor of an act like SOPA, but have never, technically, endorsed the actual SOPA. This means that their names didn't suddenly disappear from the list of companies supporting SOPA, it just means they were never included to begin with.

[via Techdirt]

[Original story] The biggest video game companies in the world, and effectively some of the strongest voices behind the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), have withdrawn their support.

SOPA seeks to allow companies to shut down sites like piratebay.org that illegally stream or allow users to download copyrighted media. If SOPA were to pass, a company like Sony could make a request to bar advertising or shut down a down sites that give users an avenue to download illegal media. The internet does not like this bill, and hacker group Anonymous even threatened Sony with another attack becasue of its support of the bill.

We know that Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft pulled its support, because those companies no longer appear on the list of supporters of the bill. The list does however still feature the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) of which those three companies are still members of, so they are still behind the bill, only in tangential sort of way.

[via Business Insider and Destructoid]