The Cooking Mama Game for Switch That Came Out, and Then Disappeared - IGN
Last week, a new Cooking Mama game was released for Nintendo Switch. The only problem is that it got un-released shortly afterwards.
tl;dr:
- depending on where you look, Cooking Mama: Cookstar is either out now, coming soon, or completely MIA.
- the trailer and the game's website point to a Nintendo eShop version of the game, but if you search for that version at time of writing, the eShop returns no results, not even a 'Coming Soon' entry.
- the game actually was released on the US eShop last week, but only for a few hours, before being pulled from sale and its listing scrubbed entirely.
- some people in NA have managed to find physical copies of the game, but most retailers aren't selling the game (amazon only sells it through 3rd party sellers). it also seems impossible to get the game in europe.
- that's all for the switch version, even weirder is the PS4 version which is listed on some retailers but hasn't been mentioned by any official source.
- originally called Cooking Mama: Coming Home, the game was leaked through rating boards and the trailer was leaked through an unlisted video on youtube that had an incorrect release window and pointed to a non-existent website.
- the original creator's of Cooking Mama seem to in no way involved with this game (their name is not mentioned on the packaging, and the game is not on their website).
- the early ratings mentioned 1st Playable Productions as the developer of the game, but those ratings have been removed and that company makes no mention of the game on their website either.
- right now the only company that seems officially involved with the game is US company Planet Entertainment, but that's only according to the physical box some people have and the official website for the game. their twitter account has been silent since 2019, and there's no mention of the game on their website. in fact, that website has actively deleted older posts about the game.
- thankfully, we can see some of those original posts, because they were hosted elsewhere. an august 2019 entry became notable for announcing that the new Cooking Mama would be the "first game to integrate blockchain technology on major consoles", which led to widespread confusion at the time. that press release discussed adding in-game currencies, online events and "Private-Key Enabled Balanced DRM". please remember, we're talking about a Cooking Mama game.
so in the end, a game of dubious origins seems to have been released physically and digitally for a very short window, but now it seems like the companies involved are trying to pretend it never happened.
UPDATE: some stuff has been cleared up in this follow-up article, and the cryptocurrency rumors have been debunked.
Cooking Mama: Cookstar Creators Move to Quash Cryptocurrency Mining Speculation - IGN
Cooking Mama: Cookstar'sstory keeps getting stranger, as theories about background cryptomining are shut down.
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