Nintendo: 'We're not trying to provide social commentary' with Tomodachi Life

Nintendo issued a statement to the Associated Press yesterday asserting that it was "absolutely not trying to provide social commentary" with the upcoming launch of 3DS life sim Tomodachi Life and that it currently has no plans to update the game to allow same-sex relationships, despite a fan campaign requesting the feature. That #Miiquality fan campaign was started by Tye Marini last month, shortly after Nintendo announced plans to bring the Japanese game Tomodachi Life to the U.S. in June. "Nintendo never intended to make any form of social commentary with the launch of 'Tomodachi Life,'" Nintendo of America told the AP. "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." Marini released a video (above) explaining his reasons for starting the campaign. The original Japanese version of Tomodachi Life launched with a bug that would randomly assign imported Mii characters to existing relationships, which led to some players having same-sex couples appear in their game. "Because this bug caused the inability for the player to save the game data and continue the game, we released a patch," a Nintendo representative told Gamasutra via email. It was also common for Japanese players to dress up their Tomodachi Life characters in clothes from the opposite gender, giving the appearance of same-sex relationships in screenshots published to Japanese websites.

When reached for comment, Nintendo of America provided Gamasutra with the same statement it has provided to other media outlets. To wit: "Nintendo never intended to make any form of social commentary with the launch of Tomodachi Life. 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."