Who would have thought that Cooking Mama would provide one of the strangest game releases of 2020? Not in terms of the game’s content, but the acrimonious business wrangling that is now surrounding it.
A day after rights holders Office Create alleged that Cooking Mama: Cookstar was an “unauthorized release”, and that the advertised PlayStation 4 version was not part of the license they had granted publisher Planet Entertainment, Planet have responded.
— Cooking Mama: Cookstar (@CookstarMama) April 15, 2020
This is just the best. Not only for the rambling nature of the rebuttal and the typos about the new features – which include “Vegetarian and, Unicorn food, Potluck Party plus more” – but for disappearance of the colon in the game’s title and the blind assertion that this is a beloved entry in the franchise.
I mean, the game isn’t even available for sale, having been almost immediately pulled from the Nintendo eShop after it was released. Not only that but its critical rating is just 45 on Metacritic after 5 reviews, with a user score of 6.9 off seven ratings. I don’t think you can say fans are “enthusiastic” if there’s just 13 people in the world have rated it.
Even putting that to one side, the game has been roundly criticised for a lack of polish, with poor performance that had people suspecting the game for having cryptocurrency mining code in it. Developer 1st Playable denied this, simply putting it down to a lack of polish.
Still, Planet are pretty certain their game is great, and that Office Create can’t pull the plug on them.
Here’s the statement (typos intact), with perhaps one of the best “peace out” lines at the end.
Planet Entertainment wants to explain the mystery surrounding the Nintendo Switch game to all Cooking Mama Cookstar fans.
Office Create, the rights holder to Cooking Mama, approved a detailed game design in 2019. 1st Playable the game developer and Planet followed the exact approved design. That design is the exact game on Nintendo Switch which also includes many addition Office Create suggestions which add gameplay value.
Unfortunately, creative differences arose as Cooking Mama Cookstar was near completion that were outside the scope of our agreement and the game design approved by Office Create.
By contract, Planet is fully within its rights to publish Cooking Mama Cookstar. There is no active litigation or ruling that prevents Planet from publishing the game.
Cooking Mama fans have been very enthusiastic about Cooking Mama Cookstar, including the many new features including Vegetarian and, Unicorn food, Potluck Party plus more.
We appreciate the overwhelming positive response and support from Cooking mama Cookstar fans.
Office Create has our total respect. We thank them for their wisdom and wish them well.
We’ll let you know as soon as Office Create sue.
Source: Twitter
