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Planet Entertainment, publisher of Cooking Mama: Cookstar, has responded to Office Create’s allegations that it was not allowed to release the new Cooking Mama game.
Office Create is the developer of all previous games in the sweet cooking sim series. It holds the rights to the Cooking Mama IP, which were lent to Planet Entertainment to produce a new Cooking Mama game. Apparently, the “quality of the game builds failed to meet the standards that our customers expect and deserve,” and Office Create told the publisher what it wanted instead.
“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,” stated the Japanese company. “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 unauthorised version of Cooking Mama: Cookstar on its website in willful violation of Office Create’s rights.”
Not a good look. Now, Planet Entertainment has shared its side of the story. It says that it adhered to the “exact approved design” for the new game. But, “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.” In spite of this, the publisher is content that it is “fully within its rights to publish Cooking Mama: Cookstar.”
Planet Entertainment thanked the Cooking Mama community for their enthusiasm for the new game, and said that it has “total respect” for the Japanese studio. Office Create is considering legal action against Planet Entertainment to “protect our customers, intellectual property rights and the Cooking Mama series.” We’ll keep you in the loop as the story develops.
