Since its release, Cooking Mama: Cookstar has been surrounded by much controversy after it was pulled from the Nintendo eShop without explanation. Rumors began stirring that it was mining cryptocurrency and allegations thrown that it overheated Nintendo Switches.
According to Screenrant, an anonymous developer from the 1st Playable development team reached out to the publication and gave their own recount concerning the turn of events. They stated that the “statement about cryptocurrency was all buzz words. The head of Planet Entertainment knows very little about these things.”
Both the official Cooking Mama: Cookstar Twitter account (run by publisher Planet Entertainment) and the 1st Playable Twitter account denied these rumors as well. According to them, there are no cryptocurrency or blockchain capabilities implemented in the final product:
We looked at these options as a means to allow players to trade in-game assets. However, we only explored the theory behind the concept, not the implementation. Cooking Mama: Cookstar, nor any of our other titles in the past or near future will utilize crypto technology.
— Cooking Mama: Cookstar (@CookstarMama) April 6, 2020
As the developers we can say with certainty there is no cryptocurrency or data collection or blockchain or anything else shady in the code. The Nintendo Switch is a very safe platform, with none of the data and privacy issues associated with some mobile and PC games.
— 1st Playable (@1stPlayable) April 5, 2020
The developer continued on in their statement to Screenrant to explain why there are overheating issues: “By many people working on their first game… it’s not the best product but it made it through several vigorous reviews by Nintendo and Sony. There is no way cryptomining stuff could get through those tests. I doubt anyone at 1P would even be able to make such a thing.”
They also gave the true reason as to why the title was pulled from the Nintendo eShop: “There is a legal battle between the publisher, Planet Entertainment and the IP holder, Office Create.” And this is because “Planet Entertainment released the game against a request by Office Create to keep polishing the game, or perhaps even canceling it.”
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 “constuctive[sic]”. Once they found out that Planet Entertainment released the game, they used their Nintendo contacts to pull it from the eShop and stop production of cartridges.
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…
Apparently even the development team wasn’t aware of the game’s release, having only been told that it was coming out in March. Advertising for the title was blocked by the publisher including YouTube ads, websites, and even Tik Toks. And it seems that the future of Cooking Mama: Cookstar is uncertain as the dev ended the correspondence by stating: “As I understand Planet Entertainment is sueing[sic] Office Create having it removed for money lost. It’s hard to say if it will ever be released properly.”
The last installment of the franchise on the 3DS, Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop, was released in May 2017. We reviewed it and had, ah, feelings about it.
The post Cooking Mama Cookstar Controversy Explained: Why it Was Pulled from the eShop by Allisa James appeared first on DualShockers.