Nintendo Will 'Fix' Bug That Allows Same-Sex Couples to Marry in Video Game

Pink News reports the Japanese 3DS console version of Tomodachi Collection: New Life was being hailed as a breakthrough in LGBT visibility in video games for allowing male Mii characters in the game to marry each other and have children. However, Nintendo has since issued a press release announcing that the ability to pair male characters -- female couplings were not allowed -- was an accidental bug and the company would soon issue a patch to "fix" the problem.

Gaming website Kotaku has posted a translation of the Japanese press release from Nintendo, which described the same-sex relationship bug by saying "human relations become strange"and said the downloadable patch would not only fix the issue, but would address other concerns such as "the inability to save," "the inability to boot up the game," and "error messages."

Protesting Nintendo's planned "fix," many users have pledged to not download the patch as a show of support for marriage equality. Others have taken to Twitter posting photos of their male couples and asking the video game giant to leave the feature in the game and instead create a patch that would allow female pairings.

Though Nintendo has yet to purposefully include same-sex couples in any of the games created by the company, several other video game developers have included same-sex romance options in several of their most popular titles.

In 2012, video game developer BioWare included optional same-sex romantic subplots in Mass Effect 3. While the company was cheered by many for setting a new standard in LGBT visibility in video games, Mass Effect 3 was targeted by several antigay groups and conservatives who called the game's same-sex romance scenes "pornographic."

Watch the video below to see one of the many optional same-sex romance scenes found in Mass Effect 3.