If you were on the internet yesterday, and you were on a video game website, you were probably aware that a lot happened with Nintendo. We had a confirmation of remakes of Ruby and Sapphire coming out this November, as well as sad news of abysmal Wii U sales. However, what I think is going to be in the news the longest is the debate over Nintendo's decision to not include same-sex relationships in the upcoming life-sim Tomodachi Life, that's set to release right before E3. On Twitter today, all I've seen is people hating on the people defending Nintendo, and a general sense of disappointment with Nintendo's decision to exclude a part of their fanbase. I'm not going to say Nintendo did the right thing; I don't think they did. I'm completely for gay rights, and am disgusted by people who use the term as slander. However, I'm going to take a pseudo-devil's advocate approach with this blog; I want to take a moderate approach, and hopefully this will make some of you think differently about this controversy.
Let's take a step back.
In the Japanese game Tomodachi Collection, there were glitches that caused Miis of the same gender to be paired into relationships, as well as cross-dressing bugs. They were patched by Nintendo because they ended up crashing the game; they weren't taken out because Nintendo was taking an anti-homosexual stance. After word got out about this patch, a petition was started for Nintendo of America to amend the upcoming North American release of the game, known as Tomodachi Life, but the company decided to not follow through and left the game the same as it had been in the original Japanese release. Now that they've given an official stance on the topic, Nintendo has again been receiving disappointed remarks from their fanbase, as well as suggestions of having a homophobic nature. This debate has honestly sickened me a bit on both sides, because people aren't looking at this in a way I think they should be.
I want to make it, again, very clear that this is not me saying Nintendo did the right thing, nor is it that they did necessarily the wrong thing. I disagree with the decision they made because of my own thoughts on gay rights, but from an objective point of view, their decision makes a bit of sense in context of who they are as a game company, and as a company in general. I think that this decision of theirs has really shown us who Nintendo is; they are both play-it-safe and risk-takers. That may sound like a complete contradiction, but it's absolutely true.
The Wii U is a fine system, but it's flogging pretty hard. I've enjoyed my time with it, and own about a dozen games for it; more than I've bought for my PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (though I've only owned my PS3 for a few months). Regardless, the fact remains that it was a risky venture for Nintendo. I don't think the GamePad is a gimmick, because in reality Microsoft has also implemented it's Surface tablet to work with the Xbox family, and Sony has streaming from the PlayStation 4 to the Vita. What's made the Wii U fail is that it's the focus of the console, instead of a feature. It's also more aimed at gamers, as it offers experiences we're not familiar with. The "casual" crowd that bought Wiis and made Nintendo's profits soar isn't interested in more core experiences. Unfortunately for Nintendo, the lower Wii U sales has caused developers to choose to move away from them, ultimately hurting the console's ability to actually garner more sales in the first place. In any case, Nintendo didn't play it safe and release a console that was very high-powered and could compete with the other new-generation systems. Instead, they took a risk with their vision, which has sadly not been really embraced. That's why Nintendo can be seen as a risk taker; even in all this failure, they still maintain their sense of humor, as seen with Reggie Fils-A-Mech and the entire Tomodachi Life Nintendo Direct.
On the other side of the equation, look at Nintendo's history; in Ocarina of Time, did Ganon cough out red blood? In the Japanese version, yes. In the North American version? No. He spewed out green blood; not something realistic. We've seen this happen again and again with Nintendo titles; Fire Emblem's 3DS outing, Awakening, had censored swimsuit pictures. Nintendo of America does not like to put out content that can be seen as breaking their "family-friendly" image. Over time, they've slowly built it up to being very open with their outlook, and I love them for their humor and general sense of "we're here to make games and have fun with you all". They're dedicated to their craft. But, they like to play it safe when controversial topics come up. They limit blood when they can, and also opted to not include same-sex options in Tomodachi Life. Of course, the idea of a gay relationship is not something that is "mature" in any regard. However, it is a controversial topic in the United States right now, and some parents are going to take offense to the option being presented to their children.
This is the reason I think that Nintendo ultimately decided to not include homosexual options in Tomodachi Life; they wanted to avoid controversy with the mass media. Sure, they've garnered dissent from the gaming community and media, but their main focus was not to be put in a bad light to the mass media. Think about it; the Wii was spread by word of mouth, and though the general media more than the gaming sector. Even though the Wii U will certainly never achieve Wii status, Nintendo is still doing their best to capture the audience they once had. To do that, they're trying to not hurt their main image. They weren't acting in a homophobic manner; they were playing it safe. I still think that they should have decided to include them in the end, but I think I can at least see their reasoning behind it. There's no way I could ever see them as homophobic; Nintendo is Nintendo.
Why would you want that girl? She has a Voldemort nose! Sorry, random aside.
Nintendo went with the decision they thought would work out best for them; so far, that hasn't been the case. To ameliorate the situation, they can do several things. One, to issue an apology that goes beyond what they've already stated about the game. They have mentioned how the game is supposed to just be crazy fun, and not about social commentary. Their apology should state they did not intend for the decision to be reflective of their stance on homosexuality, and second, they should follow up the apology with plans to patch the game to include same-sex relationships. This could also exist in the form of free DLC. It could take a couple of months post-launch for something like this to be churned out, but it would be worth it in the long run.
I know how I mentioned that Nintendo was acting based on what worked for their image in the mass media, but in reality I think that this idea can still be applied to other companies in the industry. The reason we don't see more bisexual, transgender, gay, and female characters in general is because more often than not, they elicit controversy. Yes, I think that even applies to female characters; there definitely are successes, but there's so much controversy these days over portraying different types of people correctly that I think developers are also worried about failing. In the end, some developers choose to go the safer route because they don't want to attract controversy, and honestly, they do have the right to. They will alienate some consumers regardless of their decision, but hopefully Nintendo takes this experience to heart and decides to work towards more equal representation in the future. They didn't make the best decision with this game, but I believe in them to learn from their mistake.
Peace.