Nintendo defends decision to disallow gay relationships in game

[The Straight Story]

Nintendo Co Ltd is defending its decision to disallow same-sex relationships in its best-selling "Tomodachi Life" mobile game, after fans took to Twitter to urge the Japanese gaming giant to relax that restriction.

According to the fans, married characters in Nintendo's social game gain access to in-game features denied to single ones.

"Nintendo never intended to make any form of social commentary with the launch of Tomodachi Life," the company said in an emailed statement.

"The relationship options in the game represent a whimsical and playful alternate world rather than a real-life simulation. We are a games company first and foremost and our main objective is to create games and consoles for players to enjoy."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/08/us-nintendo-gay-idUSBREA4701M20140508

[NuclearDem]

1. And Nintendo just becomes more and more irrelevant.

While BioWare and Bethesda move forward.

[Hippo_Tron]

2. Maybe it's childhood nostalgia but I have too much attachment to Zelda to see Nintendo as irrelevant

[Lancero]

3. Nintendo, irrelevant...

HA.

Funny - Got any other jokes?

[NuclearDem]

4. As far as outside the casual gamer Wii market, probably.

[Lancero]

5. In one market perhaps.

But overall, they are hardly irrelevant.

[Nevernose]

10. Not irrelevant, but quickly becoming so

http://kotaku.com/nintendo-reports-a-loss-of-457-million-3ds-and-wii-u-1572841102

[AverageJoe90]

6. I like Nintendo.....but I really wish they'd be more willing to take the plunge!

I can understand the overall family-friendly orientation of the company.....but same-sex relationships in a game don't hurt that, not at all. C'mon, fellas, don't be intimidated by the Christian Right.....

[Bjorn Against]

7. Nintendo seems to have been taken over by fundies recently

They also banned the game The Binding of Isaac because religious people objected to its portrayal of Christianity. Here is the intro video that Nintendo finds too controversial to appear on their platform...

Ironically despite their puritanical image they have been pushing recently, Nintendo got their start in business not by making video games but rather by operating "love hotels" which rented out hotel rooms by the hour. Yes, the company who does not think we can handle The Binding of Isaac and gay relationships got their start in business by providing people a place to bring prostitutes.

[Lancero]

8. Yeah, you're completely wrong on that.

Methinks you need to look into their history a bit more. You'll find that they started out 1889, making playing cards (Or, as they were called in Japan, Hanafuda Cards)

The love hotels didn't come until the early 60's, 70 years later after they first started out. It was one of a few diffrient ventures that the company tried in a attempt to expand their company out from being a card company, although these ventures were brought to a end when the company decided to start playing to their strengths for expansion rather then trying random ideas.

[Bjorn Against]

9. Well they did operate love hotels

I will concede that they made playing cards before they started the love hotels so I guess I was wrong that it is where they got their start, whether they started there or not though it is a fact that they did operate love hotels.

[white_wolf]

11. As a gay man I'm honestly kind of meh about this.

I would love for gay relationships to be allowed and I love when game developers allow them, but sadly we aren't to the point where I expect them so I'm not really surprised by this.