Nintendo Promises Future Tomodachi Games Will Be More "Inclusive"

@eccentrix: It sounds simple, but localization doesn't really cover those types of changes usually. More often than not, localization is just replacing voices, text or certain imagery. Actual substantial mucking around in the programming isn't something localization teams are always well equipped for. And it costs a pretty penny too for a game that is already "completed".

@kentonclay: That's not what they said though. They said they didn't intend them leaving it out to be social commentary. It's very clear from the context that's what they mean.

Didn't expect them to actually change this product, but it would be great if they made an effort to be more inclusive next time.

Making a mountain out of a mole hill. If people are seriously offended by this then they should check their priorities. If the first thing you think about is same sex marriage in a game then I don't know what to tell you. I feel bad for you.

Can't remember the last time there was a gay couple in a game where I though "Man this game would be so much better if they weren't gay. I'm offended." When it goes the other way around it's somehow acceptable.

Add another thing to the list for white knight journalists to litter the medium.

Not referring to Patrick per say.

When will the gaming journalism stop being so sensitive?

It's a game, get over it.

Isn't the birth rate in Japan taking a nose dive? I can see why they wouldn't want to endorse same sex coupling.

Personally, I'm totally getting this day 1. I coveted the hell out of the first Tomodachi game, almost imported it, then remembered that my inability to speak or read Japanese would be a bit of a hindrance. I'm beyond excited to finally get to play it. Here's hoping it does alright, and Nintendo makes good on their promise to be more inclusive in the future.

Yup… and everyone will promptly to back to claiming Nintendo never does anything new.

And to think if this was never brought to the west social justice internet users would never have had anything to fake outrage over, even after the apology.

@patrickklepek: I'm sure all of you bitching about this is going to help Japanese companies bring more games over...

Also there was nothing wrong with their first statement. unless its a hobby to be offended of course.

I am all for gay marriage and stuff but holy shit who cares? This is reaching for things to be offended about.

What's your problem with Suede Jacket Wearers?

@tdot: Who do they think they are? Wearing jackets made of suede. PSHAW!

THE SPACE JOCKEY WIDOWS ARE DEEPLY OFFENDED BY YOUR ACCUSATIONS!

@sergio:

their first statement was absolutely the ONLY thing that needed to be said. but i guess when websites are running headlines like "Nintendo Says 'NO' to Gays", you gotta grovel for your forgiveness.

if you want to get mad about something, get mad at putin for giving the sims 4 an adult rating in russia for having homosexual marriage. oh wait, getting mad about that isn't as fun because you can't bitch at putin on twitter and force a response.

Nintendo doesn't owe anybody anything.

I remember the days where the only sex going on in Nintendo games was a cake cock block. No sex, everybody a virgin, just deserts and picking up coins. Where the sexual frustration was so high that you start killing everything with fire, growing into a giant and curb stomping goombas because Princess Peach just won't give it up.

Earlier this week fire?

You can be mad about two things at once. Thinking Nintendo is behind the times for not including same-sex relationships in their life game doesn't mean you can't also be mad at Putin for being a fuckwit. I don't know how this has escaped you, but I'm guessing your post was more intended to stifle conversation than encourage it.

All the straight white dudes whining about this in these comments are predictable, but still disappointing. Go back to 4chan already, it's so tiring reading the bleating of empathy lacking children.

....You are one of the those people spewing negativity.

Gay people gotta remember to ask a straight dude for permission before forming an opinion on something involving gay people.

@defaultprophet: did i offend you?

Drink every time you read "look, I'm all for gay marriage but..."

@posh: nobody is forcing gay people to play the game though. If I was gay, I'd probably avoid this game and move on with my life. There's also a difference between being "anti gay marriage" and "anti gay". Thought that should be thrown out there.

i was observing that the oppression of gays in russia via video game ratings is getting no press relative to this nintendo story. you can be mad about both, but i'm not.

and you are the one stifling conversation by insulting people you don't agree with to discount their opinions.

also, nice racism, hypocrite. i'm not white.

insert Stephen Fry quote here am I right? har har

No you didn't offend me. I disagree with you.

What exactly is the difference between being anti gay and anti-everyone deserves the same rights and protection under the law? I'll wait.

Oh guys it's very very very very very very very very difficult to change this:

if (a.gender != b.gender)

a.marry(b);

To this:

/* if (a.gender != b.gender) */

a.marry(b);

They'd practically have to restart the whole project!

And no, there is no situation in which it is more difficult than this. You would have to very intentionally sabotage the program to make it care who's married to who beyond the gender checks. I think this is dumb, I think this game is stupid, I think Miis are the worst, but what Nintendo's going with here is a bald-faced lie. This isn't the '90s. We don't delete code bases any longer, translation teams can interact with the developers, search functions exist, and all games can be patched.

That's not what they said.

I don't understand why people are misinterpreting this so badly. They basically said "Sorry, we didn't mean to leave anybody out. We didn't intentionally leave out gays because we hate them, we just didn't think about it. In future we will aim to be more inclusive"

This new statement is just a clarification of the first one because people interpreted it so god damn ass-backwards. It isn't a "backtrack", and frankly it's a little gross that Patrick spun it as such.

@burton_radons: For everyone who believes it is that simple, read this great article by Chirstian Nutt who has actually played the game and did feel marginalized by it (or just listen to the various discussions on "Bombin' in the AM" where they highlight why adding a feature such as this would not be so easy).

http://gamasutra.com/blogs/ChristianNutt/20140508/217351/Understanding_Nintendos_Tomodachi_Life_problem.php

Judging by the way the game actually seems to play, they would have to create an entirely new subsystem to implement homosexual relationships. Since you don't have direct control over the characters, you would have to mark each Mii as either homosexual or heterosexual. It can't be random because you'll still have the same problem of homosexual people's Miis not being homosexual (and also the added probably of possibly heterosexual Miis ending up homosexual, which I would find amazing for certain Miis I have, but I digress).

Even if this wasn't the case and this game was closer to something like Harvest Moon, there still would need to do more than change a small bit of code. You'd need to add dialogue for the new type of relationships. You would have to change wedding ceremonies featured in the game. You'd have to add an adoption service of some kind so homosexual Miis can have babies. And a bunch of other minor things that probably involve additional coding and art. On top of this, I doubt they have the budget on the title to cover all of this. I think they could build it into a sequel, but not into this version.

@burton_radons: You have no idea what you are talking about if you think the code is that simple. I'm not saying that it wouldn't have been a good idea to go back and fix it anyway, but its just naive to suggest that it would take 10 seconds to fix an issue related to coding.

So you're including incest and polygamy?

This outrage is really stupid.

So people went "yo nintendo would you include gay couples in this dumb looking sims game" and nintendo was like "yo, we cant, we sorta forgot. sorry" and then people got pissy and now they're just clarifying why they can't and saying the next one will have them. That about sums it up right?

Im not really seeing a problem....Isn't this a win for gay equality? I mean like a REALLY small pointless win, but still a win. Why are people so mad then? Are they just outraged for the sake of being outraged?

This isn't news worthy. Just silly overblown click bait. I wish being offended wasn't so trendy and hip. It kinda cheapens things that are actually fucked up.

This wouldn't bother me so much if Nintendo hadn't spent time and money patching out the bug that allowed same sex marriage in the Japanese version. There doesn't seem like a reason Nintendo couldn't patch same sex marriage into the current version of the game.

You know, I've found in my time that those who are least adept at recognizing sincerity are those who have a strong difficulty exhibiting it. I hope you're not denying yourself the room to learn.

Come on, Patrick, don't poison the well with words like "backtracked" and "tone-deaf"; just report the facts.

Anyway, this was bound to be the best response possible, short of delaying the game and fixing it. There is more to do here other than switch a boolean from "canMarry = false" to "true." There are other factors attached to it that would make it difficult.

yeah our culture is one that only beats up people when the minority isn't represented. What happens when the majority isn't represented? Nothing. It's ok to cater to the minority because guess what, the majority do not care. Its not for them. Does Nintendo need better PR? Maybe, but doesn't change the fact they have done absolutely nothing wrong with bringing a game to the western world for people to enjoy should they choose to play it. And you can always choose not to. I agree with Nintendo's original reaction; this I not a political statement. But that's exactly what the people polling for Nintendo to change the game are doing. It's not about the game, it's about the political statement. So I ask them to go back to their lives and play other games if Tamadochi Life does not suit them. I make those decisions all the time about which games I want to play and which aren't for me. Shouldn't these people also make the same decisions instead of trying to force a content creator to custom build their games to suit just them?

@arch4non@clonedzero@patrickklepek@khann@everyone

Claiming that Nintendo "just forgot" or "meant that they weren't making a statement AGAINST gay people" is doing the polar opposite of what people like myself are.

Giving Nintendo the benefit of the doubt in this case is more foolish than assuming the worst. Nintendo is full of very, very smart people who are not blind to the world of video games or culturally tone-deaf. To think that nobody in charge at Nintendo or on the dev team that created Tomodachi was aware of the cultural statement they would be making by only including one type of relationship (straight) is lunacy.

The exclusion of the ability to have same-gender relationships in a game that seems to be largely about relationships is akin to excluding female or black characters from a character creation tool. Even if we -do- take Nintendo at their word, in the best possible light, it still indicates that queer people didn't even cross their mind over the course of developing a game designed to be some sort of life simulator revolving around relationships. That sort of blindness to a group of people who on the whole are underrepresented in a product that is designed to represent anybody is unacceptable.

@jamessmarion: get over yourself.

@jamessmarion: Are you suggesting Nintendo was being actively anti-gay? Really?

And it actually is pretty easy to "forget" about gay people if you live in an area without any and don't really know any gay people. Lack of exposure means you dont ever really think about it. Theres nothing negative or hateful about that. It just never entered their mind. I'm guessing they all did a collective facepalm when they realized it too.

But i really can't take you seriously if you're actually suggesting Nintendo hates gays.

@clonedzero: You didn't read what I said if you think that I think Nintendo hates gay people.

@clonedzero: But yes, I do think Nintendo was conscious of their decision not to include gay relationships.

you have too much white privilege to know how a japanese adult game developer feels and thinks. i'll go by what nintendo publicly said rather than assume i know anything about the inner workings of their business.

@neato: I... don't think you're using that correctly.

@arch4non: Asking developers of any race or nationality to be culturally inclusive is absolutely acceptable.

Your hobby is the same as my hobby, except it's a hobby that doesn't make you feel like an outsider or something to be forgotten.