Cooking Mama: Cookstar Publisher Says It's 'Fully Within Its Rights' to Release the Game

Planet Entertainment, the publisher contracted to release the new Cooking Mama game at the center of a bizarre controversy, has fired back at allegations that it was not authorized to release the new Cooking Mama: Cookstar. The Japanese creators of the Cooking Mama series, Office Create, released a statement earlier today calling the new Switch game, Cooking Mama: Cookstar an “unauthorized” release citing that it had “rejected a wide range of deficiencies affecting the overall feel, quality and content of the game” produced by Planet Entertainment and developer 1st Playable. As such, Office Create seemingly requested the new Cooking Mama game to be pulled from digital retail. Hence why the title mysteriously disappeared from Nintendo eShop stores and some retailers.

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In a counter-statement released by Planet Entertainment, the company says that “Planet is fully within its rights to publish Cooking Mama Cookstar” and that “There is no active litigation or ruling that prevents pLanet from publishing the game.” Planet admits that there were some “creative differences” that arose towards the completion of Cooking Mama Cookstar that “were outside the scope of our agreement and the game design approved by Office Create,” but that it was still allowed to publish the game. At this time, Planet Entertainment is selling copies of Cooking Mama: Cookstar on its official website and used physical copies can be found online. However, the game is still not available on the Nintendo Switch eShop. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/15/cooking-mama-creator-says-cookstar-release-unauthorized-is-considering-legal-action"] Cooking Mama: Cookstar is a new game in the long-running Cooking Mama series. Earlier this month, around the time Cookstar was officially listed for release, the game mysteriously disappeared from retailers. While Planet Entertainment maintained the launch was still incoming, details came out that seemed to hint at some kind of dispute between Office Create and Planet. The dueling statements seem to confirm that, while there no legal case, there is some dissatisfaction between the two parties. IGN was able to obtain a copy of Cooking Mama: Cookstar and you can read our review here. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN.

source https://www.ign.com/articles/cooking-mama-cookstar-planet-entertainment-statement