Cooking Mama series creator and intellectual property holder Office Create has issued a statement regarding Cooking Mama: Cookstar, a new entry in the Cooking Mama series published by Planet Entertainment, developed by 1st Playable Productions, and recently released for Switch at physical retailers (wherever you can find it).
According to Office Create, while the company licensed the Cooking Mama intellectual property to Planet Entertainment in August 2018, development builds of the game did not meet Office Create’s quality standards. The company rejected “a wide range of deficiencies affecting the overall feel, quality, and content of the game,” which Planet Entertainment were “contractually obligated” to correct. However, Planet Entertainment proceeded to release the game without addressing all of the issues and without Office Create’s approval.
The company also addressed the “unauthorized” PlayStation 4 version of Cooking Mama: Cookstar. Listings for the PlayStation 4 version appear across multiple European distributor and retailer websites including the Koch Media Shop, Amazon Germany, GameStop Italy, and Play-Asia. While the Switch version can be found now, the PlayStation 4 version is listed for release on either May 12 or April 28. According to Office Create, it did not license Planet Entertainment to develop a PlayStation 4 version of the game.
Office Create is currently evaluating legal action against Planet Entertainment, but did not share any further information at this time.
Get the full statement from Office Create below.
Re: Unauthorized Release of Cooking Mama: Cookstar by Planet Entertainment LLC
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.
Visit the Cooking Mama: Cookstar official website here.
Update 4:58 p.m.: Planet Entertainment has issued a response. Read more here.