Nintendo explains lack of same-sex relationships in Tomodachi Life

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Nintendo have risked worsening the situation around the lack of same-sex relationships in Tomodachi Life, in attempting to justify themselves by saying that they “never intended to make any form of social commentary.”

The result of such comments only angering fans further, and indicating that the company hasn’t taken the time to respond in a sensitive enough manner to the on-going situation.

“Nintendo never intended to make any form of social commentary with the launch of ‘Tomodachi Life,'” Nintendo of America explained to Associated Press. “The relationship options in the game represent a playful alternate world rather than a real-life simulation. We hope that all of our fans will see that ‘Tomodachi Life’ was intended to be a whimsical and quirky game, and that we were absolutely not trying to provide social commentary.”

That isn’t the perception from fans however, with Tye Marini leading a social media campaign last month, #Miiquality, that sought to plea Nintendo to add same-sex relationship options to the localised English version. Marini hopes that the campaign will lead to Nintendo either patching in same-sex relationships to Tomodachi Life, or at least ensure that they are included within a potential sequel.

“The ability for same-sex relationships to occur in the game was not part of the original game that launched in Japan, and that game is made up of the same code that was used to localise it for other regions outside of Japan,” Nintendo continued in their explanation, before responding to Marini’s campaign.

“We have heard and thoughtfully considered all the responses. We will continue to listen and think about the feedback. We’re using this as an opportunity to better understand our consumers and their expectations of us at all levels of the organisation. We have been looking to broaden our approach to development whenever possible as we put all our energy into continuing to develop fun games that will surprise and delight players.”

Tomodachi Life releases for 3DS across Europe and North America on June 6th.

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