Christina Grimmie, the young singer (and former The Voice contestant) who was tragically shot and killed in Orlando earlier this month, was a massive and very vocal fan of the Legend of Zelda series. In the wake of her murder, fans have been asking Nintendo to honour her in an upcoming game.
When ur in the car n Zelda music comes on shuffle n yu want to sprint out the car n play but yu can’t bc no 3ds pic.twitter.com/w59UPOBoWB
— Christina Grimmie (@TheRealGrimmie) June 13, 2015
As Time report, there have been at least two petitions made by fans asking that Nintendo name a character in the Zelda universe after Grimmie. One has almost 17,000 signatures, another is pushing 60,000.
It’s a gesture that comes from a good place, but Nintendo has understandably (and very deftly) said no, at least for now, saying, “we are aware of the outpouring of support for her, as well as the petition, but we won’t be making any creative or content decisions in this time of mourning.”
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17 responses to “Grieving Fans Ask Nintendo To Name Zelda Character After Murdered Singer”
Who runs Nintendo’s PR and community departments. Do they even exist?
Eh? That was a very sensible and mature response from Nintendo.
I agree, pretty much impossible to give a “good” answer to something like this. I think they gave the best possible. Sad story though, wouldn’t be the worst idea to add something in. Sure didn’t do Dying Light any harm.
I’m going to assume your post means they didn’t go far enough – what do you think they should’ve said?
It was a sensible and mature response from Nintendo. But it seems like every time Nintendo has an opportunity to engage with fans and bolster community spirit, they distance themselves.
There’s a lot of love for Nintendo, it’s games and characters, sure. How long can they continue to coast on the wave of nostalgia before people start to realise that the love isn’t being reciprocated?
I would argue that dropping to their knees and screaming to the heavens would only hurt their reputation. Nintendo aren’t in a position to do anything sincere here other than say ‘we’re sorry for your loss’. For starters they’re a company not a person, but like the relationship between her and her fans it was a real connection but it was a one way connection. Her fans loved her. She loved Zelda. She may have loved her fans as a group but she couldn’t stand there and give a eulogy for them as individuals. Nintendo are in the same boat. Their staff members can genuinely care about her death, but they can’t lie and say they knew her.
Must be sub-contracted by Valve PR.
I think it would be a great idea. Grimmie is a rather good name too.
For the name alone it’d be worth it ^^
People were doing this for Robin Williams too. Was there ever an official response to that?
The most likely thing is that they won’t do it for legal reasons. Kids/family could then try and claim royalties for using her license and just cause heaps and heaps of bad press. Who knows that other issues could pop up.
Semi-related : Robin Williams got a NPC named after him in WoW, so i’m guessing its not completely a question of legality.
Without putting too fine a point on it, I’m sure Nintendo’s army of lawyers could remedy this in, say, about half an hour with a release from her Estate, assuming they would consent.
Easiest thing for everyone would be to just say no.
The reply from Nintendo with Robin Williams was pretty much the same, albeit the petition mention.
Why not ask all game developers to make a game where you get to shot everything and everything shots back. And call it Law and Order: NRA!
I am sure that will get headlines
This is always so awkward to watch. Nintendo seem cruel here but the amount of Zelda fans who die tragically every year is huge. It’s impossible to deal with. Do they say yes to the famous ones? How about the vocal ones? The saddest ones? The game either turns into a Zelda shaped chain of tributes or a truly sick contest where the 10 ‘best’ deaths between games get a shout out.
So many people care about this series on a really deep and personal level that deserves recognition from Nintendo that a blanket no is the only sane way to handle this. There’s a very slight chance they’ll make an exception for Iwata, a man whose actions directly touched the lives of everyone at Nintendo up until his death, but even with a genuine love for the man the chances are slim.
It’s only natural to want to do something when you’re coping with this sort of loss, but asking Nintendo to do a tribute to someone they didn’t know existed isn’t the way. I recommend finding something more personal. Think about it, if you died would you want 10,000 people to tell a game developer to slap your name onto a random NPC, or would you prefer 10,000 people sat down, thought about their life and your influence on it, and then did something creative? The former is cool and if the company decides to do it on their own because they like me I’d be proud, but the latter is something that is truly meaningful.
This is absolutely the right response.