Planet Entertainment’s Cooking Mama: Cookstar has appeared on PS4, despite legal claims from the IP owner Japanese studio Office Create.
Previously, IP holder Office Create issued a statement saying the license to Planet Entertainment was terminated on March 30 of 2020, and the game was released without their permission in breach of contract. They also noted they never approved a PlayStation 4 version to be released.
The game was originally published for Nintendo Switch via the eShop and select retailers, only to be pulled from the eShop seemingly after the legality behind the game arose. Now the game has been published to the PlayStation 4 store and select retailers.
Planet Entertainment responded at that time with their own statement, saying they were within their rights to publish the game.
“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,” Planet Entertainment said. “By contract, Planet is fully within its rights to publish Cooking Mama Cookstar. There is no active litigation or ruling that prevents Planet from publishing the game.”
They also talked up how the game was initially greenlit: “Office Create, the rights holder to Cooking Mama, approved a detailed game design in 2019. 1st Playable the game developer and Planet followed the exact approved design. That design is the exact game on Nintendo Switch which also includes many additional Office Create suggestions which add gameplay value.”
The last Cooking Mama game developed in-house by Office Create was the 2017-released Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop, for the Nintendo 3DS. It remains to be seen how much longer the PS4 version of Cooking Mama: Cookstar will remain available due to the legal questions surrounding the title. We’ll keep you guys posted!