May 12, 2014
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Nintendo Apologizes for Not Allowing Same-Sex Marriage in Game
- This image provided by Nintendo shows a scene from the video game “Tomodachi Life.”
- Associated Press
Nintendo Co. has apologized for not allowing same-sex marriage in one of its simulation games after online and social media campaigns criticized the company for alienating sexual minorities.
Tomodachi Life, to be released for the Nintendo 3DS console in June in the United States, allows users to control an avatar and interact with other players online. In the virtual world, characters called Miis can start romantic relationships and marry as long as they are from the opposite sex.
“Without being able to change the romantic interest of our Miis from the default, the game alienates LGBT+ people,” said an online petition, adding that this contributes to “underrepresentation” of such people in games.
Nintendo of America released a statement Friday apologizing “for disappointing many people by failing to include same-sex relationships in Tomodachi Life.” While Nintendo said future installments of the series would be more inclusive to better represent all players, current versions can’t be replaced or rewritten to make the change.
Some other popular simulation games, including The Sims, allowed same-sex marriages of virtual characters.
Tomodachi Life was originally released as Tomodachi Collection Shinseikatsu in Japan in April 2013. A Nintendo spokesman said there haven’t been similar movements in Japan requesting same-sex marriage between Miis.
“Nintendo has taken a first step,” said Sara Kate Ellis, president of GLAAD, an LGBT advocacy group, in a statement. She said Nintendo must “catch up to peers like Electronic Arts ,” which created the popular Sims series.
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This should carry a correction: NINTENDO OF AMERICA apologized for not having same-sex marriage in the game, not Nintendo of Japan and not even Nintendo of Europe.
Beautiful. Only in America.
This reminds me of an ethics class in college where we were told about how what is right here is not necessarily right there and vice-versa. It’s not even legal in Japan and yet, automatically, you have people crying. This nation is on the decline, and giving attention to crap like this is exactly why.
You want to be gay? Be gay. That’s your choice, you’ll deal with the consequences. Tell a gay person they don’t deserve tax benefits for marriage because they don’t have the same probability of having a child… You’ll have a riot on your hands. God save us all.
I’m equally pissed at all these militant gay nonsense. But Nintendo’s handling of the matter was rather skilful. They can apologise now and still ignore them the next time.
This is possibly the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read. If I was Nintendo I’d tell them to piss off.
Mario, I agree, but to the Left, EVERYTHING is political. What you eat, what you wear, what games you play. It’s toe the line or else.