What exactly happened to Cooking Mama: Cookstar?
What promised to be a charming new entry in the beloved cooking game series, ended up
in major controversy when the game was pulled from online stores just hours after its release.
What’s more, rumours abound that the game hijacks the player’s Nintendo Switch to
use it to mine for cryptocurrency.
Most people involved are keeping tight-lipped about the entire fiasco.
The clearest picture of the Cookstar debacle comes from an anonymous whistleblower who
claims to have worked for one of the companies involved, and who spoke to Screen Rant last
week to explain their side of the story.
Bear in mind that this should not be taken at face value.
We need to stress that everything contained in this video is hearsay, and that we do not
claim that any of it is completely accurate.
Cooking Mama: Cookstar began with a collaboration between three companies: publisher Planet
Entertainment, developer First Playable, and license holder Office Create.
Theoretically, this should have been a fairly standard game project for all three.
Unfortunately, not a lot of people at First Playable knew what they were doing.
One anonymous source points out that for many on the development team, this was the first
time they’d ever made a game.
Working in Unity proved difficult for the developers, and despite their best efforts,
the game didn’t run particularly well.
It would crash a lot, and cause consoles to overheat or for batteries to run dry quickly.
Explaining their work, an anonymous developer said, “it's not the best product.”
“At one point the Japanese Office Create clients came to oversee development.
An argument started and the clients were told to go home if they weren't being ‘constructive’.”
Office Create recalls this encounter slightly differently.
In a press release on the company’s website, they said:
“Office Create rejected a wide range of deficiencies affecting the overall feel, quality
and content of the game.”
Without the blessing of the IP holders, Planet Entertainment and First Playable, also known
as 1p, continued their work.
The team discussed the idea of using blockchain and cryptocurrency technology for online transactions.
This, the developers claim, was only ever intended for in-game resource trading between
players.
If sources are to be believed, the technology was only discussed, and never implemented.
This, of course, didn’t stop Planet Entertainment CEO Steve Grossman from trying to sell Cookstar
to investors based on this blockchain technology.
In a press release, he said: “We are using blockchain to add new innovative
gameplay that investors can now have equity in.
Putting aspects of Cooking Mama on-chain will take the user experience to a whole new level,
reinvigorate a popular game franchise that many grew up with and give investors an opportunity
to make handsome returns, through a digital preferred share offering.”
Blockchain technology has many potential peer-to-peer uses, but it’s most infamous for its role
in mining cryptocurrency.
As such, Steve’s comments, as well as advertising on Cookstar’s website describing these blockchain
features, gave many people cause for concern.
According to the whistleblower, this is all the result of Steve’s miscommunication:
“The statement about crypto-currency was all buzz words.
The head of planet entertainment knows very little about these things... he just put some
fancy language to get potential investors who like that stuff…
“There is no way crypto-mining stuff could get through those tests.
I doubt anyone at 1p would even be able to make such a thing.”
This comment should probably not be taken at entirely face value.
Nevertheless, while the finished game wasn’t particularly well built, it did pass Nintendo
and Sony’s quality standards check.
When Cooking Mama: Cookstar released, it did so without blockchain technology.
Unfortunately, it also launched without the permission of Office Create.
Said the whistleblower: “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.”
Thus, a few cartridges managed to slip out into the open, and some “lucky” players
managed to grab it on the e-shop before it was removed.
At the time of writing, Planet Entertainment is still attempting to sell copies of the
game direct to consumers through its website.
Meanwhile, furious that their intellectual property is being mistreated, Office Create
has said: “Unfortunately, the quality of the game
builds failed to meet the standards that our customers expect and deserve.
Office Create rejected a wide range of deficiencies affecting the overall feel, quality and content
of the game.
Yet, despite being contractually obligated to correct the identified deficiencies and
resubmit the corrected game for Office Create’s approval, Planet proceeded to release Cooking
Mama: Cookstar without addressing all of the rejections and without Office Create’s approval.
“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…
“Office Create is evaluating all legal action against Planet to protect our customers, intellectual
property rights and the Cooking Mama series.”
Literally as we were editing this video, Planet Entertainment put out a response on Twitter:
“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….
“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 contrast, 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.”
In other words, this issue isn’t going away any time soon.
The legal battle on the horizon promises to be absolutely spectacular.
Of course, this is all based on the information we currently have.
Who knows what other skeletons might be hiding in Mama’s cookware closet…