NIntendo Apologizes For Exclusion Of Gays From Tomodachi Life

[Casual Shinji]

Nice to see Nintendo this quick on the ball with damage control, and showing some humility.

[sub][sub]If only they were this quick in saving the Wii-U. [/sub][/sub]

 

[RossaLincoln]

It's nice for Nintendo to apologize and promise to do better next time, though I'm still not sold on why they left out the option in the first place or that it would be all that difficult to implement post release. Basically, I just see this whole issue as just more confirmation (as if it was needed) that Nintendo is, quite frankly, out of touch with the present.

I give it maybe a month before someone patches it in somehow, despite how "impossible" Nintento says that would be.

This is what I'm expecting as well.

They should not have left it out, but speaking as an actual software developer, seemingly small changes like this can be incredibly difficult to make work right. Considering the nature of the game, in which the characters act pretty much independent of player control, I would assume the change would be incredibly difficult. There would need to be changes to AI, changes to menu, entirely new AI variables, new events, new resources, new dialog, contextually changing dialog... It all depends on how it was done originally. This is not just changing one boolean flag check like everyone assumes it is. It might be impossible to do without rewriting the relationship AI and reworking the UI from the ground up. And then there is the bug and usability testing. And then the re printing of the carts... in a worst case scenario, it might have been better for them to just not release in English then try to rebuild the game to include homosexual relationships, but that is unlikely.

A change like this is a massive effort. We might see same sex marriage modded in, but I would be shocked if it is anything substantial. Would you really have preferred Nintendo to do a half-ass job on this one?

Thanks for weighing in. I am not a developer, but as a layman I'd assumed the same thing. Which is to say, the tone-deafness and weirdness of their initial reaction aside, I take them at the word that they can't do it with this game without severe headaches.

 

[DrOswald]

I really hope this period of financial battering hopes Nintendo actually have some new and interesting game ideas. I know the announcement of yet another Pokemon re-make has made nostalgia-dollar fans jizz themselves and whilst it is nice it's still just another re-make from a company who's output in recent years has felt like nothing but re-makes and very gradual and slight iterations.

Your avatar made me chuckle.But the "All Nintendo makes is remakes and old IPs" isn't really correct considering they are making new games.However it's not their fault if people refuse to buy while still crying for something new.

What New IPs are Nintendo bringing to the table in the next year or so? I haven't been made aware of a single one.

Off the top of my head X (developed by monolith, published by nintendo) and Wonderful 101 (published by nintendo) are both new IP's. I know there are more but they are smaller games so I am not going to bother with them. Also, we should be getting new announcements soon at e3, they might announce a new one there for 2015.

And one you should really know about, considering where you posted this, Tomodachi Life is a new IP.

 

[RossaLincoln]

I really hope this period of financial battering hopes Nintendo actually have some new and interesting game ideas. I know the announcement of yet another Pokemon re-make has made nostalgia-dollar fans jizz themselves and whilst it is nice it's still just another re-make from a company who's output in recent years has felt like nothing but re-makes and very gradual and slight iterations.

Your avatar made me chuckle.But the "All Nintendo makes is remakes and old IPs" isn't really correct considering they are making new games.However it's not their fault if people refuse to buy while still crying for something new.

What New IPs are Nintendo bringing to the table in the next year or so? I haven't been made aware of a single one.

Well for the 3DS there was Bravely Default which turned out to be a massive success and is currently getting a sequel.Not to mention there are tons of third party games on the 3DS alone that don't revolve around the Main "3".For the WiiU there's Bayonetta 2 and a bunch of other games that I can't remember at the moment.And before that there were games like Okami and Wonder101 that did'nt sell as much despite people clamoring for something new.

I can't speak for the other games, but Okami probably underperformed because most of the people likely to play it had already played it on PS2 the year before it came out on Wii. It underperformed on that system too, unfortunately. LIke Psychonauts, it's one of those "too good to succeed" kind of games.

 

[marioandsonic]

It's nice for Nintendo to apologize and promise to do better next time, though I'm still not sold on why they left out the option in the first place or that it would be all that difficult to implement post release. Basically, I just see this whole issue as just more confirmation (as if it was needed) that Nintendo is, quite frankly, out of touch with the present.

I give it maybe a month before someone patches it in somehow, despite how "impossible" Nintento says that would be.

This is what I'm expecting as well.

They should not have left it out, but speaking as an actual software developer, seemingly small changes like this can be incredibly difficult to make work right. Considering the nature of the game, in which the characters act pretty much independent of player control, I would assume the change would be incredibly difficult. There would need to be changes to AI, changes to menu, entirely new AI variables, new events, new resources, new dialog, contextually changing dialog... It all depends on how it was done originally. This is not just changing one boolean flag check like everyone assumes it is. It might be impossible to do without rewriting the relationship AI and reworking the UI from the ground up. And then there is the bug and usability testing. And then the re printing of the carts... in a worst case scenario, it might have been better for them to just not release in English then try to rebuild the game to include homosexual relationships, but that is unlikely.

A change like this is a massive effort. We might see same sex marriage modded in, but I would be shocked if it is anything substantial. Would you really have preferred Nintendo to do a half-ass job on this one?

I'm currently studying to get into game development, and this is completely accurate.

You can't just change one line of code and expect the entire program to work exactly the same. It could possibly create even more glitches, or even make the game not work at all.

Anyway, good for Nintendo for coming in and doing their best to defuse the situation.

 

[Dragonbums]

This article should be titled "Nintendo has to repeat what they already said on the Tomodachi Life with even a more bold and stupid proof statement" because that's all I'm seeing in this.

 

[Dragonbums]

It's nice for Nintendo to apologize and promise to do better next time, though I'm still not sold on why they left out the option in the first place or that it would be all that difficult to implement post release. Basically, I just see this whole issue as just more confirmation (as if it was needed) that Nintendo is, quite frankly, out of touch with the present.

I give it maybe a month before someone patches it in somehow, despite how "impossible" Nintento says that would be.

This is what I'm expecting as well.

They should not have left it out, but speaking as an actual software developer, seemingly small changes like this can be incredibly difficult to make work right. Considering the nature of the game, in which the characters act pretty much independent of player control, I would assume the change would be incredibly difficult. There would need to be changes to AI, changes to menu, entirely new AI variables, new events, new resources, new dialog, contextually changing dialog... It all depends on how it was done originally. This is not just changing one boolean flag check like everyone assumes it is. It might be impossible to do without rewriting the relationship AI and reworking the UI from the ground up. And then there is the bug and usability testing. And then the re printing of the carts... in a worst case scenario, it might have been better for them to just not release in English then try to rebuild the game to include homosexual relationships, but that is unlikely.

A change like this is a massive effort. We might see same sex marriage modded in, but I would be shocked if it is anything substantial. Would you really have preferred Nintendo to do a half-ass job on this one?

I'm currently studying to get into game development, and this is completely accurate.

You can't just change one line of code and expect the entire program to work exactly the same. It could possibly create even more glitches, or even make the game not work at all.

Anyway, good for Nintendo for coming in and doing their best to defuse the situation.

Not to mention that the same sex couple "feature" in question actually corrupted save files, crashed the game, and in some instances actually damaged the 3DS itself.

 

[Faustek]

Bravely default is only on the 3DS which makes it a Nintendo IP.Just like how back in the day Metal Gear Solid was a Sony IP despite being made by Konami who is third party.

This is one of the wierdest arguments I've ever heard. DayZ is only on microsoft windows, does that make it a Microsoft IP? God the Nintendo fans are really reaching today. 3DS is a system that has a lot of exclusive games because of it's specific hardware as a handheld. That does not make Nintendo responsible for those IPs existing.

What about Dragon Quest then? PlayStation, Nintendo, PC and iOS/Android. Is it cthulhu?

On topic. Glad they responded but I don't trust it. If they decide to create a new installment? Hell I'm still waiting so I can be black in AC. And that is easier but still not happening. Nah walk the walk and I'll consider coming back. Until then its just bs.

 

[DrOswald]

Bravely default is only on the 3DS which makes it a Nintendo IP.Just like how back in the day Metal Gear Solid was a Sony IP despite being made by Konami who is third party.

This is one of the wierdest arguments I've ever heard. DayZ is only on microsoft windows, does that make it a Microsoft IP? God the Nintendo fans are really reaching today. 3DS is a system that has a lot of exclusive games because of it's specific hardware as a handheld. That does not make Nintendo responsible for those IPs existing.

Nintendo co-published this with square, but I think square owns the IP. I would not call it a Nintendo IP.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I think Nintendo just didn't want to make a stance on the whole gay thing. There's risk for a large company in saying that they're anti or pro same sex relationships.

Well...there isn't a middle ground, though. Once you've put heterosexual relationships into your thing, you can either decide to exclude homosexuals ones, or include them. Both are taking a stance on the issue.

Having said that, you can dodge the issue by not allowing heterosexual relationships to begin with. Remember the good old days, when all lego faces were bright yellow with simple black smiley faces with no noses? Totally avoided all sorts of issues then.

 

[DrOswald]

Bravely default is only on the 3DS which makes it a Nintendo IP.Just like how back in the day Metal Gear Solid was a Sony IP despite being made by Konami who is third party.

This is one of the wierdest arguments I've ever heard. DayZ is only on microsoft windows, does that make it a Microsoft IP? God the Nintendo fans are really reaching today. 3DS is a system that has a lot of exclusive games because of it's specific hardware as a handheld. That does not make Nintendo responsible for those IPs existing.

What about Dragon Quest then? PlayStation, Nintendo, PC and iOS/Android. Is it cthulhu?

On topic. Glad they responded but I don't trust it. If they decide to create a new installment? Hell I'm still waiting so I can be black in AC. And that is easier but still not happening. Nah walk the walk and I'll consider coming back. Until then its just bs.

But... they do walk the walk. They have had positive LGBT characters in a new Pokemon game and a new Animal Crossing game since the release of Tomodachi Life and they have a pretty good track record of inclusiveness. And they have been this way for a while. As far back as Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door they have been portraying LGBT characters in a positive light. Vivian is a trans woman (physical male who identifies as a female is what I mean, I apologize if I got the specific term wrong) and that is shown as a positive thing.

Nintendo may have made a misstep here, but they have a history of doing well in this area.