'Final Fantasy' Video Game Update Allows Same-Sex Marriages

An upcoming update for the popular PlayStation and PC game, "Final Fantasy XIV," will allow players to enter into same-sex marriages after the game's officials initially decided to exclude gay marriage, Gawker's video game news site Kotaku reported on June 10.

The massively multiplayer online role-playing game will get the patch allowing characters of the same-sex to "pledge their eternal love and/or friendship in a ceremony of eternal bonding," according to the game's director and producer Naokia Yoshida, who confirmed the change during one of its live-streamed E3 developer talks.

Yoshida added the people of Eorzea, the fictional world in "Final Fantasy XIV," can get married "regardless of race, creed and gender. Two players...if they want to be together, in Eorzea, they can - through this eternal bonding ceremony.

"We discussed it," he said, "and we realized: within Eorzea, why should there be restrictions on who pledges their love or friendship to each other? And so we decided to go this way."

Kotaku also points out that the game's team is also considering "special mounts that only people who pledged their love and friendship can ride."

As Business Insider reports, when "Final Fantasy XIV" was rebooted in 2012 as "Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn," it came with a number of new features, including the ability to get married. But officials from Square Enix, the company that produces the game, released a statement about gay marriage in the game.

"As for same-sex marriage, this is an extremely controversial topic that has been under discussion in the MMO world for the past few years," the statement reads. "First we would like to start out with opposite-sex marriage, and then consider the feedback from our players in order to make a careful decision. I can't say whether or not it will be possible at this point in time. I'd like to keep dialog open with our players as we deliberate the matter."

Nintendo officials may want to take a lesson from the team behind "Final Fantasy XIV." In May, the popular video game company came under fire after it was revealed that it wouldn't allow gamers to play as gay in the life simulator game "Tomodachi Life."

"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."

Not long after that statement did Nintendo officials apologize for the lack of LGBTQ equality in the game.

"We apologize for disappointing many people by failing to include same-sex relationships in 'Tomodachi Life'," Nintendo said in a statement. "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."

Watch Yoshida discuss same-sex marriage in the game below (around the 2:30:00 mark):

This story is part of our special report: "Gay Marriage". Want to read more? Here's the full list.