More than 100,000 fans have signed a petition to convince Nintendo to name a character in its Legend of Zelda after Robin Williams. Nintendo has acknowledged the effort, but has not announced plans to do so.
The Oscar-winning actor, who took his own life last week, was an avid gamer and such a fan of Legend of Zelda that he named his daughter after the titular character. In response to the petition, Nintendo offered the following statement to The Wall Street Journal:
Robin Williams was loved at Nintendo. Our hearts go out to his entire family, and especially to Zelda Williams who we’ve worked with multiple times. We appreciate the outpouring of support from the gaming community, and hear the request of fans to honor him in a future game,” said the company in a statement.
We will not be discussing what might be possible for future games during this difficult time, but we will hold our memories of Robin close.
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While Nintendo mulls a Williams tribute, Blizzard Entertainment has announced it will add a non-playable character to World of Warcraft named after Williams:
.@robinwilliams Thank you. You gave us so much joy in our lives, and we hope you enjoyed your time in our world. We’ll see you in-game.— World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) August 13, 2014
In addition to being a Zelda fan, Williams was big on other games, including Portal, Warhammer 40,000 and Call of Duty.
Below is a sweet 2011 ad Williams and his daughter created for Nintendo: