Nintendo refuses to add gay marriage option to Tomodachi Life

Upcoming 3DS title Tomodachi life will not allow gamers to marry others of the same sex.

The platform holder went to great lengths to correct reports last month that it had patched out a gay marriage bug” in the game, stressing that gay marriage was never an option in the first place.

What it never did, however, was explain why the option was not coded in from the off. And despite a social media campaign calling for the game to reflect modern marriage equality, Nintendo is resisting.

"Nintendo never intended to make any form of social commentary with the launch of Tomodachi Life," Nintendo of America told the Associated Press. "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.

We have heard and thoughtfully considered all the responses. We will continue to listen and think about the feedback. We’re using this as an opportunity to better understand our consumers and their expectations of us at all levels of the organization.

We have been looking to broaden our approach to development whenever possible as we put all our energy into continuing to develop fun games that will surprise and delight players."