I think that I could write a whole series of articles titled “Nintendo Doesn’t Understand” and then go off on meaty tangents about things in the modern world that Nintendo doesn’t seem to be able to grasp. Things like how people want to play games on the internet, how HD graphics are a big deal, how innovation is great, but good games will always be their bread and butter. I know that I’m not the only one who scratches their head when they think about Nintendo because people aren’t giving their money to Nintendo anymore, they once again reported a loss in their latest earnings call, this time $457 million for the fiscal year.
The Wii U has been out for well over a year now and has only sold 6.17 million units and the 3DS, while performing pretty well at 43.3 million units, is still below their expectations. Clearly Nintendo has lost their grasp on what the gaming world really wants. Another thing to add to the list of topics that Nintendo doesn’t understand is gay marriage, something that has become a hot topic in the world when it really shouldn’t be. This comes off more like Nintendo being bumbling, lovable idiots than anything else, but it’s still kind of ridiculous.
There is an upcoming game called Tomadachi Life where you can foster relationships between Miis, leading to, of course, marriage. You have to give Nintendo credit for at least kind of trying to do something different, but Nintendo only left room for heterosexual relationships, which upset some gamers. Hell, there are internet petitions (of course there are) floating around to support same sex marriages in the game.
Nintendo decided to respond to this internet outrage, showing that they don’t understand that the lifecycle of this story was probably just about done anyway, by claiming that it is a fun, whimsical game meant to not be like reality. Furthermore, there was no gay marriage in the original Japanese release, so why would the English release have that? They plead that they weren’t trying to do any sort of social commentary with Tomadachi Life, although omitting the option has seemingly been enough to get people talking about the game and the lack of options.
Oh Nintendo, it’s time to realize what century you are living in.
