Who knew that Cooking Mama could be such a spicy topic? Well, it turns out that the bugged and crytopmining skullduggery involving gaming’s favorite Engrish-speaking chef was just the tip of the iceberg related to all of the behind-the-scenes craziness taking place involving the Cooking Mama license and distribution of Cooking Mama: Cookstar.
The original rights holders, Office Create, made an official announcement over on the Office Create Japanese website, with the notice being published in English so everyone can read it.
They explain that they originally licensed Cooking Mama to the Connecticut-based outfit Planet Entertainment. The idea was for Planet Entertainment to develop Cooking Mama: Cookstar. The game, however, was filled with bugs, glitches, and poor playability, causing Office Create to postpone any releases until Planet fixed all the issues. They didn’t.
Instead, Planet Entertainment released Cooking Mama: Cookstar anyway, but it was later pulled from the Nintendo eShop after complaints were made about the Switch’s battery overheating when playing the game. This led to the reports about the cryptomining scheme that was apparently being employed for the game, leading to it being pulled both from the eShop and from retailers.
There’s a recap of all the drama courtesy of YouTuber Matt McMuscles.
Office Create avoided talking about all of Planet’s schemes and instead focused on the fact that they supposedly never gave them the green light to distribute the game in its current state.
Office Create explained that they didn’t authorize the release on Switch, nor the proclaimed release for the PS4, and that they’re now evaluating legal action after terminating Planet’s license to the Cooking Mama series…
“We have also learned that Planet and/or its European distributor has been promoting an upcoming European release of a PS4™ version of Cooking Mama: Cookstar. Office Create has not licensed Planet (or any other entity) to create any Cooking Mama games for PS4™. Office Create itself has not been involved in the development of any PS4™ Cooking Mama game.
“On March 30, 2020 Office Create notified Planet of its immediate termination of the license due to Planet’s intentional material breach of the license contract. Despite such notice, Planet continues to advertise and sell the unauthorized version of Cooking Mama: Cookstar on its website in willful violation of Office Create’s rights. To date, Planet has not confirmed the status of the unauthorized PS4 version.
“Office Create is evaluating all legal action against Planet to protect our customers, intellectual property rights and the Cooking Mama series. In the meantime, we thank our customers and loyal Cooking Mama fans for their continued support and sincerely regret any confusion and disappointment that has been caused by Planet’s conduct.”
That sure is one wild ride… especially for a mini-game laden cooking sim for the Switch.
Apparently things are still just getting started with Cooking Mama: Cookstar, and obviously Office Create aren’t done punishing Planet Entertainment for their transgressions.
(Thanks for the news tip MaverickHL)
