--- description: Nintendo delicately rebuffed requests from gay gamers to simulate same-sex weddings title: Nintendo Bans Gay Marriage in New Game Tomodachi Life image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt86271c044dacece7/69868e41361760951c90bdf5/488515023.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Nintendo Says No to Gay Weddings in Upcoming Game ## Video: Nintendo Says No to Gay Weddings in Upcoming Game [Watch (HLS stream): Nintendo Says No to Gay Weddings in Upcoming Game](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/9XPYuu3M.m3u8) (1:48)  _Published 2014-05-08. In Nintendo’s new social simulation game Tomodachi Life, you can do just about anything... but if you’re gay, you can’t get married._  by [Dan Kedmey](/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 7, 2014 8:26 PM CUT  A statue of Nintendo Co.'s video-game character Mario stands at the company's showroom in Tokyo on Wednesday, May 7, 2014. A statue of Nintendo Co.'s video-game character Mario stands at the company's showroom in Tokyo on Wednesday, May 7, 2014.Tomohiro Ohsumi—Bloomberg/Getty Images  by [Dan Kedmey](/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 7, 2014 8:26 PM CUT Dozens of countries across the globe now allow gay marriage, but it’s still verboten in some virtual worlds. Nintendo has resisted calls from gay rights advocates to allow avatars in same sex relationships to marry in its new life simulator game. A Nintendo representative [told](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/nintendo-says-no-virtual-equality-life-game "undefined") the Associated Press that the company “never intended to make any form of social commentary” with its upcoming release, Tomodachi Life. In the game, an avatar called a “Mii” can go shopping, visit amusement parks and do just about anything other than marry another avatar of the same sex. That design feature irked Tye Marini, a 23-year-old gamer who’s in the process of arranging his own real-life gay marriage. “I want to be able to marry my real-life fiancé’s Mii,” he says. Marini [launched](https://twitter.com/Miiquality "undefined") a social media campaign to pressure the company into creating a same-sex marriage option. Nintendo declined, saying, “The relationship options in the game represent a playful alternate world rather than a real-life simulation.” \[[_AP_](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/nintendo-says-no-virtual-equality-life-game "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/91308/nintendo-gay-marriage-ban-tomodachi-life/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/91308/nintendo-gay-marriage-ban-tomodachi-life/"},"headline":"Nintendo Says No to Gay Weddings in Upcoming Game","datePublished":"2014-05-07T20:26:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:02:10.635Z","description":"Nintendo delicately rebuffed requests from gay gamers and rights advocates to simulate same-sex weddings in its upcoming release, Tomodachi Life, saying that they \"never intended to make any form of social commentary\"","url":"https://time.com/91308/nintendo-gay-marriage-ban-tomodachi-life/","keywords":["Tech","Gay Rights","Gay Marriage","Video Games","LGBT","Nintendo","Gaming","Avatar"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt86271c044dacece7/69868e41361760951c90bdf5/488515023.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Kedmey","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt86271c044dacece7/69868e41361760951c90bdf5/488515023.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"General Nintendo Imagery As The Company Reports Earnings","caption":"General Nintendo Imagery As The Company Reports Earnings","creditText":"Tomohiro Ohsumi—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/91308/nintendo-gay-marriage-ban-tomodachi-life/","name":"Nintendo Says No to Gay Weddings in Upcoming Game"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Nintendo Says No to Gay Weddings in Upcoming Game","description":"In Nintendo’s new social simulation game Tomodachi Life, you can do just about anything... but if you’re gay, you can’t get married.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/9XPYuu3M/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-05-08T18:45:51.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/9XPYuu3M.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/91308/nintendo-gay-marriage-ban-tomodachi-life/","duration":"PT1M48S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/91308/nintendo-gay-marriage-ban-tomodachi-life/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```