Cryptocurrency mining, overheating Switch consoles, and a mysterious pull from the Nintendo eShop - there's a lot of drama surrounding Cooking Mama: Cookstar. But in the span of 48 hours, a lot's been cleared up, and we can firmly say this is likely the end of this crazy story.
In an exclusive interview with ScreenRant, an anonymous developer has spoken up about all the controversy surrounding this game. As it turns out, the reason Cookstar was pulled from the eShop has nothing to do with blockchain or DRM. Instead, they reveal that Cooking Mama Ltd. (also known as Office Create) is trying to strongarm the developer into releasing a more polished game. Turns out, Mama's licenseholders aren't too happy with the state of the finished product.
At one point the japanese official create clients came to oversee development. An argument started and the clients were told to go home if they weren't being "constuctive". Once they found out that planet entertainment released the game, they used their nintendo contacts to pull it from the e-shop and stop production of cartridges.
From the sound of it, Office Create grew upset with the quality of the game. Planet Entertainment went ahead with the agreed-upon release, only to have Office Create flex their muscle and get the game pulled. All the while, 1st Playable tried their best to make a polished game against what sound like pretty dire circumstances.
We were told the game was coming out in March. That's all anyone knew. The boss at 1p, tobi, keeps that kind of thing to herself mostly stating she doesn't want to stress us with the details... Advertising was blocked by office create too. There were youtube ads, websites, and even tik tok ads that never came out.
Office Create, from the sound of it, sabotaged the release of the game until the quality was up to their standards. Planet then went ahead with the planned release, against Office Create's wishes, which resulted in the Japanese developer using their contacts to scrub the game. Planet Entertainment then sued them for not holding up their end of the licensing agreement, as well as for money lost on development. Now, there's a good chance the game may never come out.
As I understand planet entertainment is sueing office create having it removed for money lost. It's hard to say if it will ever be released properly.
Ouch. This is an ugly saga with a conclusion that's ultimately more sad than exciting. 1st Playable is a studio that seems to really care about the Cooking Mama franchise. Now, their hard work on Cookstar under these messy circumstances may go entirely unappreciated - outside of the few copies that have come out in the wild.
Overall, everyone at 1p loves the cooking mama franchise and did their best to make the best product considering the interference from the higher ups. I think the game is far from perfect, but would have done fine without the publishers stumbling so constantly...
So, what can we learn from this whole sordid saga? First, it's important to vet sources when it comes to rumors - the whole cryptocurrency story wound up being a complete sham. Second, talking directly to developers is the quickest way to the heart of a story, so hats off to ScreenRant for that initiative. Third, and perhaps most importantly: Cooking Mama: Cookstar is a sad reminder that games are ultimately, under capitalism, treated as a product that are beholden not to the people that make them, but to licenseholders and corporations.
Hopefully, Cookstar comes out in some form where 1st Playable's hard work can be enjoyed by Cooking Mama fans all over the world. In the meantime, TheGamer has gotten our hands on a copy of the game, and will have our thoughts up this week.
Source: ScreenRant