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Cooking Mama: Cookstar Game Publisher Responds to Licenser's Allegations

The official Twitter account for Planet Entertainment's Cooking Mama: Cookstar game posted Planet Entertainment's response to allegations by Cooking Mama franchise creator and licenser Office Create on Wednesday. Office Create alleged that Planet Entertainment had published Cooking Mama: Cookstar on the Nintendo Switch console's eShop service despite failing to meet Office Create's standards.

Planet Entertainment claims that it and 1st Playable Productions, Cooking Mama: Cookstar's developer, followed a game design previously approved by Office Create, but that there were "creative differences" between Planet Entertainment and Office Create toward the end of the game's development that were supposedly outside of the companies' agreement and the original design. Planet Entertainment claimed that it was within its rights to publish the game, with no rule in place to prevent the company from doing so.

Office Create previously claimed that while it had licensed the Cooking Mama: Cookstar game to Planet Entertainment for development, the game failed to meet Office Create's standards, and Planet Entertainment had failed to address Office Create's concerns. Office Create is now evaluating legal action against publisher Planet Entertainment, and has terminated the latter's license for breach of contract.

Planet Entertainment briefly released the Cooking Mama: Cookstar game on the Switch console's eShop on March 31, but the game was removed shortly after.

Office Create and Taito released the first Cooking Mama game on Nintendo DS in Japan in 2006. The franchise has since spawned several sequels and spinoff games, such as Babysitting Mama, Gardening Mama, and Camping Mama. Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop, debuted in Japan for the Nintendo 3DS in 2014, and in the West in 2017.

Source: Cooking Mama: Cookstar's Twitter account via Gematsu