The IP holder and creator of Cooking Mama, Office Create, has released an important notice explaining how Cooking Mama: Cookstar was an "unauthorized release" by Planet Entertainment.
The statement also mentions how the Japanese-based company is now evaluating all of its legal options against Planet, in order to protect its customers, intellectual property rights, and the Cooking Mama series.
Here's the entire notice, directly from Office Create's webpage:
April 15, 2020
Office Create Corp.We would like to thank our fans and customers for their support over the years for the Cooking Mama franchise. As many of you know, Planet Entertainment LLC (Headquarters: Connecticut, USA; "Planet") recently released "Cooking Mama: Cookstar" for sale in the U.S., Europe and Australia. This was an unauthorized release in breach of Planet’s contract with Office Create.
In August 2018, Office Create licensed Planet to develop the Cooking Mama: Cookstar game for Nintendo Switch™. 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.
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.
So according to Office Create, anyone in possession of Cooking Mama: Cookstar technically has an unauthorized copy of the game. This would also explain why Planet Entertainment resorted to selling copies directly from the Cookstar website.
To get the full backstory, and hear Planet's side of the story, check out our previous article.
[source vooks.net]
Comments 42
This is pretty crazy. Definitely interested to see where this all goes. Wouldn’t mind a good cooking game to play on my Switch.
Wow, I'm surprised a developer would be this silly. Seems like this will end up costing them a fortune, and good luck finding another publisher after this.
As the world turns!
Anybody think the hot topic in gaming would be Cooking Mama of all games lol.
I haven't played any of the Cooking Mama games, but...
Dang, this is deep...hopefully Office Create will find better hands for that IP to safely land on. It saddens me to hear the latest game tarnishing a shiny beaut of an IP. Hopefully Mama will get back on her feet from all of this...
Then again, what do you expect out of a developing company whose catalog seemed like things you'd find on the "Dollar-Fifty Toy Shelf" aisle?
Luckily I could buy the game before the storm for a normal price. I hope we see in the future a polished and finished game.
First the blockchain thing, and now this. Kind of wild that a Cooking Mama game of all things has generated this much drama and controversy.
But for now, Cooking Mama Cookstar will still have the PS4 version too.
@DeathByLasagna A good cooking game on the Switch? Have 2:
https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/cook-serve-delicious-2-switch/
https://www.nintendo.com/en_CA/games/detail/battle-chef-brigade-switch/
Have a bonus one (not sure if this one's good or otherwise):
https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/waku-waku-sweets-switch/
Just release the damn game.
Did someone put a curse on this game?
It's the FO76 ordeal all over again, just less legal.
@GrandScribe I wouldn't be surprised.
"In completely unrelated news, sales have now skyrocketed on the basis that it's now a collector's item."
@ReaperExTenebris Thanks Mr. Actually.
Lol, what a dumpster fire. I just can't fathom why the people at Planet did this. Like, they've committed an egregious breach of contract and not only do they refuse to stop, but they go on to actively promote and sell their illegal game. All those responsible will never work in the industry again and will likely have to pay back all profits alongside substantial fines (if not jail time), so what's their end game? Making their mark on the industry? Taking a prank too far? Just doesn't make sense!
Wow, I've never seen anything like this before, it's a really crazy situation!
@TheAwesomeBowser Totally unrelated, but I freaking love your avatar 😂 is it from Shaun The Sheep?
@Alpha-2002 and is no longer a collectors item as it sold so well!
@ReaperExTenebris It's not a beta though. It's just a bad game.
it's a simple, legal scam. They dump bad product on the market, hide their assets, get sued, plead poverty then start again. It's a common every day occurence in many businesses all over the world all the time
@Wargoose They are defending their IP, which is being abused by the publisher against contract for a quick buck. To make matters worse, the PS4 version that Planet is pushing implies something even worse...either they are scamming the playerbase into ordering something that doesn't exist, or they are literally stealing the IP from Office Create and having another company port the game that they have no stake in the copyright of outside the confines of the contract they broke.
If anything you could say that one would be surprised that the publisher would be so silly, as they won't be able to show their faces to a developer ever again.
@clvr Yeah it is from Shaun the Sheep. Have you seen the new series? It's brilliant.
I have a copy. Haven't opened it. I'm debating on what I should do with it.
@TheAwesomeBowser nope, I've never watched it to be honest! I've seen like a couple episodes here and there but never really dived deep into it. I really should though, thanks for the recommendation!
@papermarioamiibo I'd leave it sealed, some idiot is likely to pay a good amount of money for it soon enough
@Wargoose wait, are you criticising a studio that has essentially had their game stolen by a publisher that is releasing unauthorised copies of the game and potentially scamming people on a game that doesn't exist?
@Trikeboy I think he's just confusing the developer and the publisher as the article doesn't really make it clear that Planet Entertainment aren't actually the developers
This ongoing saga is the most fun I've ever had with Cooking Mama, can't wait for the next episode.
@AcridSkull haha same. I do not foresee future cooking mama titles
At least 2020 for gaming will be remembered for something else other than the pandemic
This developer deserves lose all he have to lose in this sue. They need learn to not mess with mama (and with a detentor rights too).
No offense to Planet Entertainment, but... they do know how IP licensing and related legalities work in the industry they're part of... right? Because the way this whole situation has been described as of late is an admitted eyebrow raiser indeed.
Yikes. I hope Cooking Mama wins the case, what a mess. Had a copy of this game lying around somewhere. I guess I'll leave it in the packaging.
"I'm Planet Entertainment and I do what I want!".
Also, people seem to be confused. It looks to me like Office licensed Planet not only to publish but to help develop Cookingstar, so Office didn't do all (or perhaps a majority) of the work on the game. Then when they said they weren't happy with what Planet had at it's nearly finished state, they suggested some fixes. Planet then ignored whatever they wanted and released the version they had.
Edit: It appears it was not developed by Planet, but Planet instead hired "1st Playable" to develop for Planet to then publish. Apparently Office Create sent some people to oversee the project at one point and they got in an argument with some people there because their feedback wasn't constructive apparently, so those people just left. Why did Office Create have basically nothing to do with their own game? Are they too busy making other games that they couldn't participate in the first game in a while one of their major franchises? Not to mention the first on Switch. Bit silly if you ask me, but obviously this isn't what you would expect to happen as a result.
And with every twist and turn, the chances of this game coming back to store shelves becomes less and less.
What a crazy ride this has been. I actually just bought 2 copies of it off their website. Have no interest in playing it but this may be able to fetch a premium in the future so may as well
@Jayofmaya I hope that Planet will never work on something again lol (Like I think that they'll close after this mess, and I'm sure that it'll hard for them to find other works to do)
But this is also a lesson for Office Create, instead of letting some kind of strange company develop your only IP, they could have just developed it by themselves. But they are too busy with that money-sucking phone game.
Am I the only one who thinks that this fiasco is shaping up to be one of the biggest, of not the biggest, scandal for the gaming industry in 2020?
Lord knows what hot mess 2021 will bring.
I was so excited when this game came out and was lucky enough to get a copy, but I feel so guilty about even owning one. When I played this the first time knew this was a game that wasn't even close to being ready based on previous games I have played. I hope it gets worked out soon and they find someone willing to work with them and go through the process and make a game that is up to expectations. Planet Entertainment will have a hard time finding people willing to work with them after this.
Can’t see this being worth much now that they’ve sold through all their copies directly. I wonder how many they made.
The drama surrounding this game is more interesting that all the Cooking Mama games combined!
@papermarioamiibo hold onto it and give it to a future game museum?
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