“Makeb”: Star Wars for “gay planet”.

An online role-playing game set in the Star Wars universe has added same-sex relationships, but only to players that visit Makeb, the contentious new downloadable planet that has split the game’s community.

Bioware, developer of Star Wars: The Old Republic, revealed the new planet in a blog post, where executive producer Jeff Hickman apologised for the update taking so long, iterating that allowing same gender romance is something the developer is “very supportive of”.

Another of Bioware’s games, Mass Effect, allows user-created players to engage in same-sex relationships without the need for a game add-on.

The planet, which is available in the Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansion pack, has been labelled “regressive” by PC Games N for its segregation of same-sex relationships to a single planet.

The addition has also been criticised by fans of the game on the developer’s official website, with some players suggesting it’s “not a high priority”.

“I understand this is something that was ‘promised’, but why do we even need it in this game? Go play Mass Effect if you want that. I don’t think it belongs in Star Wars,” said forum poster Wrthlessnoob.

“Same gender romance arcs” (SGRA) have been requested by Star Wars: The Old Republic players for a while, and some players were happy to see the addition.

“Huge thanks for the update regarding SGRAs. It’s a start. Very interested to see how far it goes,” said Kioma.

Makeb will be available in the Rise of the Hutt Cartel downloadable pack, which will be released in autumn 2013.