As a queer game developer, this question puts me a bit on edge. "Pushing the gay agenda" is a phrase implying that for people like me, just visibly existing in the world constitutes an "agenda." That having exclusively straight relationships is completely neutral of politics, while a single gay relationship in a game crosses the line into propaganda. Rather than thinking of this purely in dollars and cents, please consider talking to queer people on your team and to your queer players, about how much just being allowed to visibly exist in a game the way we do in the real world can mean to us.

How would anyone come by those facts and data you want? Someone could, for instance, A-B test their game. Ship two games, one with the feature and the other without, and see which one sells better. That sounds impractical; if it is in fact impractical, then it is impractical to collect the data you want.

No it will not, there are many AAA titles with gay chars(Mass effect, Dragon age etc), and in games like Life is strange the main protagonists are turbo gay and the game was a full success across everything. The only thing you should not do is force your believes on people (atleast not too much) thats what gets people the most mad.

@DMGregory Exactly what I was thinking—many of my LGBTQ friends feel this way, and giving them that hint of spotlight was our initial goal. We just want to make sure it’s good for the game as well.

@Geliormth About LGBT in general! For future reference among other aspiring developers as well. The question is, of course, tailored to me, but it’s not been asked before, so that’s why I used the term ‘LGBT characters’ instead of ‘lesbian couple’.

@EricLippert I really like your idea here—I may try that in our playtesting phase.

@ND523 You could do like some Visual Novels on steam do. Release a "safe" version and have a patch for the "complete" version available on your own website.

@0xFF People usually only do that when the "complete" version would violate the Steam content policy. Just having homosexual characters does not do that. It only gets problematic when the characters in the game don't keep their clothes on. If it's a case of "some people might not want to see that", you can just put an option in the game. For Example, Hotline Miami 2 lets the player decide if they want to see a (non-graphic) implied rape scene or not.

@Philipp True, but that could save it from a 18+ rating in less tolerant places, like Russia (as per this comment)

I'd like to point out that as a straight, cis male, I don't really give a damn about the characters sexual preference unless it's shoved down my throat (regardless of which preference). If the story is good and the gameplay is fun, I'm going to buy it and have fun playing it. Those two factors are to me (and probably many others) more important than some random sexual preference of any of the characters. Keep in mind your audience for (any) JRPG is primarily young adults who probably watch some form of anime. In a lot of cases, LGBT inclusiveness is a common theme in them.

"Shoved down my throat" = "I saw something I don't like"

@barbecue Not true. The point of this thread is not to assert a political opinion, so please keep that in mind. Popeye shoves down your throat that spinach is healthy. Spinach is healthy! You can’t deny it—but they take every opportunity to tell you about it. That’s the issue many people have in this situation. Whether they support the community or not, many, it seems, get tired of the seemingly perpetual assertions of normalization.

@ND523 regarding swapping the gender of a member of the couple for A-B play testing: It seems to me that if you can do this without much effort, it's likely these characters are not developed enough, or are at least not central enough to the story, that their orientation one way or the other isn't going to matter, (or maybe even be noticed by players).

@DMGregory Understand your concern of wording, but please note that extra baggage you think of might not be implied by OP's actual usage. Technically it is an agenda. Just like African-American slavery abolishment was a common agenda in my country (U.S.) more than a century ago (and equal rights still is). It's a great agenda, I cannot stand racists, but an agenda nonetheless. Just like criticism and excuses, so too with agendas: they need not to be negative. "I missed work yesterday because my son died." Still an excuse; but an appropriate one. It excuses you. "I want freedom X" is an agenda.

@ND523 except if you actually look at the "agendas" being "shoved down throats" by "[insert ad hominem] game developers" you find that they are a tiny fraction of the actual content involved. I repeatedly ask people to explain how many times something must be presented to constitute "shoving it down your throat." Once? Twice? Seven times? What percentage of total game content must be devoted to the subject for it to constitute throat-shoving? Every time, without exception, the answer boils down to "I shouldn't have to see it"

I understand and sympathize with your motivations to make a profitable game, but I would encourage you to simply do what your conscience tells you is right.

@barbecue While I do believe that the phrase "shoved down our throat" is generally how you characterize it I also think that in the comment you're replying to it's more an indictment of gratuitous use of the sexual act in games, as the poster said "regardless of preference". I'm one of those that finds many sex scenes in movies to be gratuitous; they don't advance the narrative at all and are merely for titillation value in my opinion, usually targeted at/for men specifically.