UPDATE 10pm: Planet Entertainment has responded to accusations that it breached its contract by publishing Cooking Mama: Cookstar, in a lengthy statement which, if nothing else, is worth relaying for its surprise use of the words “unicorn food”.
“Planet Entertainment wants to explain the mystery surrounding the Nintendo Switch game to all Cooking Mama Cookstar fans,” the publisher wrote in a statement posted to Twitter.
According to Planet, Cooking Mama rights holder Office Create – which has accused the publisher of breaching its licensing agreement – approved a “detailed game design” in 2019. Planet says it, along with Cookstar’s developer 1st Playable, “followed the exact approved design”, which resulted in the “exact” game ultimately released on Switch.
“Unfortunately,” continued the publisher, “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 say that “by contract” it’s fully within its rights to publish the game and “there is no active litigation or ruling that prevents [it] from” doing so.