HBO lampoons Nintendo gay marriage stance in ‘Tomodachi Life’

Nintendo’s upcoming 3DS title Tomodachi Life (Nintendo’s playful version of The Sims) received a flood of negative attention after it was found that same-sex partnerships weren’t possible in the game. While Nintendo has now publicly apologised, it didn’t take long for the media to dig in. HBO’s talk show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver has a bit of fun at Nintendo’s expense, as seen in the video below.

Here’s Nintendo’s apology:

We apologize for disappointing many people by failing to include same-sex relationships in Tomodachi Life. Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to change this game’s design, and such a significant development change can’t be accomplished with a post-ship patch. At Nintendo, dedication has always meant going beyond the games to promote a sense of community, and to share a spirit of fun and joy. We are committed to advancing our longtime company values of fun and entertainment for everyone. We pledge that if we create a next installment in the Tomodachi series, we will strive to design a game-play experience from the ground up that is more inclusive, and better represents all players.

Nintendo’s previous response to the internet outrage was less than acceptable:

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 ability for same-sex relationships to occur in the game was not part of the original game that launched in Japan, and that game is made up of the same code that was used to localize it for other regions outside of Japan.