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Tomodachi Life, Nintendo's strange Mii-world adventure game, will not feature same-sex relationships

But it should

Tomodachi Life, Nintendo's strange Mii-world adventure game, will not feature same-sex relationships
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3DS
| Tomodachi Life

Nintendo has announced that the Western version of Tomodachi Life, its surreal Mii-friend adventure, will not feature same sex relationships.

In a statement emailed to ABC News, the Japanese company claimed it wasn't trying to make any sort of social comment, all while making a really quite massive and depressing social comment.

"Nintendo never intended to make any form of social commentary with the launch of Tomodachi Life. 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."

The statement follows the Miiquality campaign, which was started by Tye Marini, a 23 year old from Arizona. You can check out the video that fronted the campaign below.

It really saddens me that in 2014 it's still necessary to write a piece condemning Nintendo's attitude. The idea that same-sex relationships don't fit into a 'playful alternate world' is, quite frankly, offensive.

I'm a straight white male. I get to play life in easy mode by default. I see images of myself everywhere. I am represented.

But more and more I feel like I'm being represented by an industry that is horrifically behind the times.

And yes, gaming is supposed to be about whimsy and quirks, it's supposed to be about escapism.

I don't want to escape to a world that doesn't let everyone in - it's bad enough that I live in one of those already.

Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.