Nintendo: Gamers can't play as gay in an upcoming life simulator game
Source: Omaha World Herald-AP
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nintendo isn't allowing gamers to play as gay in an upcoming life simulator game.
The publisher of such gaming franchises as "The Legend of Zelda" and "Mario Bros." said Tuesday it wouldn't bow to pressure to allow players to engage in romantic activities with characters of the same sex in English editions of "Tomodachi Life." This follows a social media campaign launched by fans last month seeking virtual equality for the game's characters, which are modeled after real people.
"Nintendo never intended to make any form of social commentary with the launch of 'Tomodachi Life,'" Nintendo of America Inc. said in a statement. "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."
Tye Marini, a gay 23-year-old Nintendo fan from Mesa, Arizona, launched the campaign last month, urging Osaka, Japan-based Nintendo Co. and its subsidiary Nintendo of America Inc. to add same-sex relationship options to English versions of the hand-held Nintendo 3DS game.
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://www.omaha.com/article/20140507/MONEY/140508771/1707#nintendo-gamers-can-t-play-as-gay-in-an-upcoming-life-simulator-game
= new reply since forum marked as read
So ha! There! 
Although they have settings that let parents turn off "gayness". 
People have calling for the death of Nintendo for a quarter of a century now & it still hasn't happened.
After all challengers have come & gone, Nintendo will still be here making games...THEIR way.
If anything developers are starting to migrate AWAY from Apple's platform due to the lack of standards & waning ability to be profitable there.
It's just like the Atari era all over again. Nintendo took over this business in 1985 by putting controls on the industry.
There's a reason why they have been here decade after decade.
That said, they need to open up on that gamer's request for Tomodachi.
Animal Crossing pretty much allows unspoken expression.
Male characters can wear girl's clothing & female characters can wear guy's clothing.
There's already a rainbow shirt in the game so a gay person can use that as a statement.
Whatever's not there can be custom created.
But Nintendo hates controversy.
In Japan it's less of a big deal but Nintendo is known for following the safe cultural confines of other lands.
That's why Devil World has never been released here.
That's why 'alcohol' is always 'milk' in their games.
Play The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask & go to the Milk Bar.
Somehow you get a little tipsy off of Chateau Romani. 
Once the gay issue is less controversial you'll see less of this kind of thing from Nintendo.
They should do Tomodachi like they did Animal Crossing.
Do it in an unspoken fashion without making an overt political statement avoiding controversy.
John Lucas
Longevity is the name of the game for Nintendo.
They started out with flower cards called Hanafuda.
Games like Koi-Koi came from there.
Naturally they expanded into "Western" playing cards with the Ace/Jack/Queen/King, Clubs/Hearts/Diamonds/Spades setup.
Those in the know remember how the late Hiroshi Yamauchi inherited the company & being dissatisfied with it being merely playing cards expanded the company into toys, electronic toys, & the electronic toys known as videogame consoles which they are known for today (never mind their failed ventures into love hotels & instant noodles).
But here's what most people miss.
Everything Nintendo does, every way Nintendo acts falls in line with their original playing cards roots!
Fact is they STILL make playing cards to this day but it goes deeper than that.
Remember how people were stupefied at how Nintendo didn't use the CD format for the Nintendo 64 opting to stay with cartridges?
It makes sense if you know their roots.
Say that word out loud to yourself: Cartridges.
CARD-tridges.
All cartridges are merely overgrown cards.
They eventually took up Sony's lead with disc-based media for their home consoles.
After all Sony co-developed the Compact Disc (the CD) with Phillips. Makes sense why PlayStation would lead the way with disc media in videogames.
But in the handhelds, Nintendo would not let go of the cartridges.
Game Boy Advance: Cartridges.
DS: Game Cards.
3DS: Game Cards.
In fact the 3rd edition of the DS, the DSi of 2009, had not only game cards but SD cards for saving data & putting photos, music & such on.
3DS has the same. Game cards AND SD cards.
Their home consoles may use discs but ALSO still use cards.
Gamecube had memory CARDS. Wii had SD CARDS. Wii U has SD CARDS.
The dominance of the DS over Sony's PSP (PlayStation Portable) caused a reversal as the PlayStation Vita left the disc format of the PSP in favor of CARDS! Hahahahaha! 
It came full circle. Sony made Nintendo adopt discs. Nintendo made Sony adopt cards.
In Club Nintendo, their loyalty program for customers, they frequently have playing cards as rewards.
In fact I got myself a Hanafuda deck with Mario characters on it from there.
Thinking back on it even the Game & Watch of 1980 was shaped like a card.
The Game & Watch influenced the Famicom/NES controller design.
They put out a game called Master of Illusion on the DS which had a full deck of Nintendo playing cards inside (Western variety).
The game was about teaching you magic tricks.
When you buy a 3DS today you will find that it has AR Cards inside (Augmented Reality).
And so does a 3DS game called Kid Icarus: Uprising.
Naturally they have card playing videogames like DS's Clubhouse Games (one of my favorites) & Touch Solitaire from DSiWare.
The bonus side games in Super Mario 64 DS & New Super Mario Bros. have various card games inside like memory match & a variant of poker.
Mario Party games are known to have card games inside of them.
Brain Age: Concentration Training for the 3DS is LOADED with card games.
But it goes even further than all of that.
When you first power on a new Wii U, they do a brightness test to make sure your TV settings are correct for display.
And do you know what they use to test this with?
You pick out a series of Clubs, Hearts, Diamonds, & Spades.
When you play New Super Mario Bros. U on the Wii U using the Boost Mode from the Gamepad (I call it the U-pad), it creates platforms that can assist players having a hard time getting through the stage.
Do you know what is ON those platforms?
Clubs, Hearts, Diamonds, & Spades.
Their playing card roots are ALL OVER EVERYTHING. THEY. DO.
Videogames are just the natural extension of their original gaming entertainment roots.
And playing cards are at that root.
Oh but I'm not done.
There's more.
Even the way they conduct business & interact with the public is like a cagey card player holding his cards close to chest...
...then surprising the table with the trump.
They're secretive & hard to predict just like a Poker Player with his/her Poker Face.
They don't reveal all of their secrets willy-nilly & choose to shock & surprise in their playful manner.
The public never sees it coming. Just like the playful Joker in the card deck.
Thought to be fools but that wild card trumps the suits.
Also to touch upon that Master of Illusion mention I made earlier, that also gives them a magician's ability.
That's why their products are so magical.
Everybody knows of the wonder & awe at a magician performing card tricks.
The surprise & unexpected outcomes.
All of that is related.
That's why I had to tell onehandle that Nintendo is here to stay.
Right now they're playing through a few bad hands but eventually that card deck will turn in their favor.
When they get that good hand they will be ready to play it.
Nintendo is STILL a playing card company 125 years later.
John Lucas
Kids will ALWAYS be a major part of Nintendo's audience.
After all PLAY is the domain of the child.
And to stay youthful in adulthood you must get in touch with your childhood or else you become old fogeyish & ready for the grave.
Puppies playbite on ragdolls to practice real biting on prey as adult dogs.
Kittens play scratch balls of yarn to practice real scratching of prey as adult cats.
Kids play with baby dolls & water guns to practice real childrearing as adult women & warfare as adult men.
But even as adults we play because the plasticity of the youthful mind allows you to absorb more information.
The older you get the more your mind tends to harden & you block out information.
Just like the comparison between a plant stem & tree bark.
Play & a youthful mentality guard against this.
Remember, ultimate maturity means death.
Nintendo is about the child & the child-at-heart.
That's why their products are so universal & accepted from ages 2 to 102.
But the common denominator is CHILD.
That's why cartridges made sense & was one of the many reasons they stuck with that format.
That's why their products are so durable. So Tonka Tough.
Kids tear up stuff so you have to have something to can deal with a kid's damage.
See what I wrote here for more detail.
I explain why they came up that word 'Nintendium' for Nintendo's products.
Nintendo products have always been the most reliable. Wii U is the best choice.
Sony missed out on the original videogame revolution in the 1970s & 1980s because frankly they thought it was beneath them.
They looked down on this medium. Thought it was childish & a fad.
Even when one of their engineers Ken Kutaragi saw the promise of games, everybody else in the company dismissed it.
If not for him having the company president's ear, Sony would have never entered the videogame business.
Even when they entered, they wouldn't even call it videogames.
They call their videogame division Sony Computer Entertainment.
Sort of like how Vince McMahon prefers Sports Entertainment over Wrestling (Rasslin').
Sony was sophisticated & cosmopolitan. Elegant sleek. Sexy.
Kaz Hirai when promoting the PSP in 2005 talked about bringing portable entertainment out of the gaming ghetto (coincidentally ruled by Nintendo & its Game Boys).
The PSP did everything BUT games. It was supposed to be the Walkman of the 21st Century.
Games were the 4th reason for the system under movies, music, internet.
And that's why they got their ass handed to them with a much less powerful 2-screen/touchscreen & mic combo called the Nintendo DS.
Nintendo is NEVER ashamed of their playful roots.
They don't "modernize" Mario. They show off their 8-bit pixels in retro throwbacks.
They're not ashamed to look silly or goofy.
At a press conference in 2004 one of the bigwigs in the company, Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda, etc.), came out on stage wearing a bright green 1Up Mushroom T-shirt brandishing a Master Sword & Hyrulean Shield from the Zelda games!
There's no pretentiousness with Nintendo.
That's why there's a big difference between Sony's Sly Cooper & Nintendo's Mario.
Sly Cooper is trying to be hip & cool looking. He's badass.
Mario's not afraid to have a big goofy smile on his face wearing a ridiculous cat suit on top of it!
Discs are for adults who know how to properly handle a fragile object like that.
Cartridges are to prevent kids who may be a little rough with the item.
I have found that a company's roots always influence a company's philosophy.
Everything makes sense about Nintendo once you understand the roots.
John Lucas
You also realize that they just sold two of the most successful systems of all time in the 7th generation, right?
The DS of 2004 broke Nintendo's own record for best-selling handheld of all time.
It beat the Game Boy which had sold nearly 120 million all versions combined.
DS sold 153 million.
3DS started slow thanks to Nintendo's own bungling of the launch.
After they shook those cobwebs off 3DS is tracking near the sales trajectory of the DS.
It may even beat DS's record or at least match it.
2006's Wii sold over 100 million & transformed the entire videogame business just like the DS.
It actually could have sold lots more if Nintendo didn't abort the system to push Wii U.
Both Wii & DS are the reason why Apple got into games on the iPhone.
The iPhone's very design takes cues from what Nintendo did with DS & Wii.
XBox? Hahahahaha.
The XBox has never made Microsoft money.
NEVER. NOT ONCE.
2001's XBox lost them BILLIONS.
2005's XBox 360 lost them BILLIONS.
2013's XBox One will probably lose them BILLIONS.
That's billions with a B, by the way. Not millions.
Microsoft has been subsidizing those consoles for 13 years.
If they didn't have the vast reserves of money made from Windows, they would have left the gaming biz years ago.
That green-colored logo stands for the money-green steroids Microsoft pumps into the system to enhance performance.
PlayStation?
Admittedly the PS4 has had an EXCELLENT launch.
However Sony is nearly on the verge of extinction.
They have sold major office buildings like their New York headquarters & a Tokyo headquarters.
They have exited the computer business which means no more Sony Vaio.
They have long conceded their music business to Apple & the iPod.
Think about it. When is the last time you seen a Sony TV displayed in a electronics section?
It's all Vizio, Samsung, LG nowadays when before Sony was THE name in TV & general electronics.
About the only thing they're prominent with today IS the PlayStation which is so ironic.
That used to be one of their many pies now it's the whole meal.
Chasing Nintendo down this videogame alley has snared Sony.
They have taken their eyes off the prize trying to beat Nintendo.
The PlayStation 1 & PlayStation 2 set new sales records & transformed the industry.
But the problem even then was Sony's business model.
The profits they SHOULD have made from those systems should have been MUCH more.
The way they were set up, they could only be profitable if they sold record amounts of consoles & got royalties from game sales.
They sold system at a loss hoping to make it back with game royalties.
As soon as they lost their record success with the PlayStation 3 & PlayStation Portable fiasco, they tumbled HARD.
Videogaming is a ROUGH ROUGH business. It's brutal as hell.
You have to go through so much to R&D & market a system that has a lifespan of about half-a-decade then you gotta start all over again.
You have to make frequent price cuts to spark interest & keep riding a wave of hype & excitement to maintain that interest.
You have to cater to the demands of 3rd party game developers who want certain features to display their games.
You have to bribe those developers with money to get them to favor your system over the competitors.
Only one company in the entire history of the videogaming business has managed to have a business model that can survive such a volatile field & that's Nintendo.
Their model is so stable that even as marketshare shrinks they can maintain profits.
And then when marketshare expands they can profit ridiculously to store away for future droughts.
They don't cater to the 3rd party developers instead insisting that the 3rd party developers follow their lead.
They run such an efficient R&D & marketing model that they can keep their prices lower.
They know how to spark excitement & hype in unique non-traditional ways.
As much money Sony made with the original PlayStation & its 100 million sales, Nintendo made nearly as much with their 32 million-selling Nintendo 64 & Game Boy Color.
Same comparison with the 157 million-selling PlayStation 2 & the 21 million-selling Gamecube & 81-million selling Game Boy Advance.
If Nintendo can survive in drought then they can flourish in rain.
That's how this small company can hang with these tech giants so easily.
Nintendo for the longest time only had 3000 to 4000 employees worldwide.
Sony currently has 146,300 employees worldwide.
Microsoft has 101,914 employees worldwide.
Nintendo has recently gotten up to 5,195 employees (an additional 1,988 external).
Yet somehow as small as they are comparatively Nintendo's market cap is larger than the entire Sony Corporation!
Not bigger than Sony Computer Entertainment. Bigger than the entire Sony Corp. put together.
Sony's stock has been downgraded to junk status.
You see it doesn't matter how many PS4s you sell if it costs more or just as much to make them.
Good on marketshare bad on business future.
Sony has eroded so badly in the 20 years since they entered the videogame business.
20 years ago Sony was the KING.
The Walkman, CDs, a music arm containing the biggest artist in the world Michael Jackson, movie/TV arms, so much preeminence in general electronics.
Today it's Sony, the guys that make the PlayStation.
Fact is, Sony is more dependent on the PS4 to sell than Nintendo is with the Wii U.
If the PS4 doesn't sell, Sony will leave the videogame business & be just that much closer to bankruptcy.
So many of their arms are mediocre at best. They have severely fallen behind their competition in every sector.
They NEED the PS4 to be a success. DESPERATELY.
Microsoft may be losing billions on the XBox but they got billions to spare.
So long as they want throw money down that XBox pit they'll do it.
Sony can't afford to fail one more time.
They don't know how to survive in drought in the videogame world.
Nintendo losing money is so rare that it has people calling for their doom.
That's how good Nintendo is in business.
Nintendo losing money is Breaking News because it usually doesn't happen.
But the sky is not falling no matter how much Chicken Little says it is.
According to this article Nintendo has over $15 billion in cash reserves.
Billion with a B.
And that $15 billion reserve covers one major business: videogames.
Yes they make cards & toys but all of that is pretty much in the same pot.
Sony has to spread their reserves over numerous pots.
Which means that reserve spreads thin much quicker.
Sony will run out of money to spread WAY faster than Nintendo will.
AND BECAUSE Nintendo is pretty much a one-business-only company, they have NO CHOICE but to make their business work.
They can't subsidize from other arms & branches like Sony & Microsoft do.
It forces them to succeed because that is the only way they will eat.
Of the 3 current home consoles only ONE has free online: the Wii U.
The others you have to pay for a subscription service: PlayStation Plus. XBox Live Gold.
Wii U's Wii U Chat feature is pretty much Skype.
You can't use Skype on XBox One without paying for XBox Live Gold.
Microsoft owns Skype by the way.
I can talk to anyone around the world for free using my Wii U (and I HAVE).
Wii U has absolute backwards compatibility.
Not just games but controllers & all.
And once again it is the cheapest of the 3 & it comes with a pack-in game.
Once people sit down & take a honest look at what's on the market Wii U sales will pick up.
No, it's not good that they're losing money right now but it's also not permanent.
They will recover & they will rebound.
The only reason Nintendo is crunched like this is because they are battling 4 giants from inside & outside the videogame console business.
They're fighting Sony with the PS4 & Vita.
They're fighting Microsoft with the XBox One.
They're fighting Apple with the iPad & iPhone.
They're fighting Google with the Android-powered tablets & smartphones from Samsung.
Fighting 4 giants all at the same time. 2 from within & 2 from the outside who threaten to destroy the entire videogame console business altogether.
But they will be fine when it's all said & done.
Nintendo is not the one you need to worry about.
Sony is the one you better watch out for.
Microsoft too if they ever get tired of wasting their money.
Longevity is the name of the game with Nintendo.
Like Gloria Gaynor says "They will survive".
John Lucas
is a religious divide by zero error. 
But that's just me, somebody who's gaming experience consists mostly of pinball.
Response to Omaha Steve (Original post)
