Submission 12,846

Part of a series on Cooking Mama. [View Related Entries]

Important Notice re. Cooking Mama: Cookstar April 15, 2020 Office Create Corp. 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 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. develop the Cooking Mama: Cookstar game for Nintendo Switch TM. Unfortunately, the quality of the game builds failed to meet the standards that our customers expect and We have also learned that Planet and/or its European distributor has been promoting an upcoming European release of a PS4TM version of Cooking Mama: Cookstar. Office Create has not licensed Planet (or any other entity) to create any Cooking Mama games for PS4TM. Office Create itself has not been involved in the development of any PS4TM 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 PS4TM 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.

NINTENDO SWITCH. Crypto mama (blockstar www.pegi.info

Cooking Mama: Cookstar @CookstarMama · 11h The internet is alive with rumors that Cooking Mama: Cookstar contains hidden cryptocurrency/blockchain capabilities that are causing the Switch to overheat. This is absolutely incorrect. At Planet Entertainment, we explored both blockchain technology and cryptocurrency tokens. 27 19 56 Cooking Mama: Cookstar @CookstarMama We looked at these options as a means to allow players to trade in-game assets. However, we only explored the theory behind the concept, not the implementation. Cooking Mama: Cookstar, nor any of our other titles in the past or near future will utilize crypto technology. 10:06 PM · Apr 5, 2020 · Twitter Web App

Akfamilyhome @Akfamilyhome Broke: Controversy surrounding a Cooking Mama game because of false claims that it mines cryptocurrency Woke: Ehm @OtherEhm - 14h As discovered by @bxaimc: A few of the BGM tracks in Cooking Mama: Cookstar were ripped directly from YouTube. Show this thread CookingMama5_BackgroundMusic 1_YoutubeRip CookingMama5_Menus_YoutubeRip CookingMama5_Results YoutubeRip espannol freezer_sfx_Loop frozen_fail garden_jingle_promise_no garden_jinglle_promise_ok GARDEN_MUSHROOM_PULL garden_rainbow HELPResults AudioClip AudioClip AudioClip AudioClip 3208832 2774360 3522840 35224 AudioClip AudioClip AudioClip 74984 41188 39888 AudioClip AudioClip 34100 2732 AudioClip AudioClip 38024 1232004 MAMA4_BGM_GAME1 MAMA4_BGM_GAME2 AudioClip 1166504 AudioClip 4321960 MAMAA PGM GAMECOMP AudiaClie A777004 1:23 AM · Apr 6, 2020 · Twitter for Android

View All 26 Images

Overview

Cooking Mama: Cookstar Cryptomining Rumor refers to disproven allegations that the 2020 game Cooking Mama: Cookstar contains cryptocurrency mining software that deteriorates Nintendo Switch consoles it is installed on. The allegations were spawned by a 4chan's /v/ post and received viral spread on Twitter in early April 2020.

Background

On March 26th, 2020, Cooking Mama: Cookstar, the sixth main installment in the cooking simulation video game series Cooking Mama, was officially released^[1] by Cooking Mama Limited for the Nintendo Switch console. On April 3rd, 2020, IGN^[2] reported that despite being released, the game was not available in the Nintendo eShop in the United States and Europe, while physical copies of the game could only be found in limited locations and as offers from third-party sellers on Amazon.

On April 4th, 2020, in a /v/^[3] thread dedicated to the game not being available despite the release, an anonymous 4chan user wrote that the game "might have a [cryptocurrency] miner built in," citing a "hotshot in the Switch homebrew scene" (post shown below). The thread received over 530 replies, with the post gaining 17 replies.

Anonymous Sat 04 Apr 2020 20:57:05 No.502111269 Report Quoted By: >>502111319 >>502111414 >>502111538 >>502111567 >>502111795 >>502111974 >>502112015 >>502112119 >>502112308 >>502112675 >>502112689 >>502113281 >>502114930 >>502115365 >>502117038 >>502120229 >>502123164 This news is already out of date. Some hotshot in the Switch homebrew scene got its hands on a copy and has begun looking into it and found suspiciously high resource usage and some network s--- indicating it legit might have a miner built in.

Developments

On April 5th, 2020, the rumor of Cooking Mama: Cookstar having cryptomining code built in reached Twitter. On that day, Twitter^[4] user @Gay_Furby posted the earliest known viral post about the claims (shown below, left), with the tweet gaining over 2,900 retweets and 9,700 likes; later on the same day Twitter^[5] user @MorshuMmm posted a screenshot of a Discord message that received over 9,500 retweets and 21,900 likes (shown below, right).

morgan causing mayhem @Gay_Furby cooking mama cookstar sounds like a fake video game "new game in a beloved franchise made by a completely different dev uses your nintendo switch for bitcoin mining and was only officially available for 4 hours" no one's gonna believe that in like 10-15 years 10:01 AM - 5 Apr 2020

GATORPOOON @MorshuMmm PSA FOR COOKING MAMA COOKSTAR UHOHBRO Today at 11:25 AM @everyone THIS IS URGENT apparently if you own Cooking Mama Cookstar uninstall that immediately its Usiing your system to mine Crypto Currency and potentially handig your personal info as well credit to Cybershroom for the heads up rubber ducky go quack q... Today at 11:14 AM >The company that published it is owned by the surviving Koch brother >The actual owners of Cooking Mama don't know s--- about it >The press release describes it as having blockchain-based DRM >The headquarters of the publisher is a house in Connecticut >If you got your hands on it, it won't launch unless you're online >Switch network traffic skyrockets, battery life craters, and the thing overheats in about half an hour 12:31 PM · Apr 5, 2020 · Twitter for iPhone

Later on the same day, several Twitter users, including @itssimontime^[6] and @Wunkolo,^[7] stated that the game analysis showed no indication that the game contains malicious code (posts shown below, left and center). Later on the same day, game developer the official Twitter account for the game stated^[8] that despite the developers previously exploring options for implementation of blockchain technology into the game, the game did not use crypto-based technology (post shown below, right).

SimonTime @itssimontime I keep seeing rumours about there being a cryptominer in Cooking Mama: Cookstar, and due to its inclusion, it was pulled from the eShop. After some RE work, I can safely say there is no cryptominer/blockchain stuff anywhere within Cooking Mama: Cookstar's code. 3:05 PM · Apr 5, 2020 · Twitter Web App

Wunk ACNH @Wunkolo I can say with a lot of certainty that the Cooking Mama: Cookstar game does not have any kind of cryptocurrency miner of any sort. Reverse engineered the Rom and found nothing indicating cryptocurrency or blockchain or anything of the sort. It's just a typical ol Unity game dude 7:27 PM · Apr 5, 2020 · Twitter Web App

Online Reactions

Starting on April 5th, multiple Twitter users made jokes about the rumor, with some users also posting fanart referencing the allegations (example posts shown below). On the same day, an inquiry about the allegations was posted in /r/OutOfTheLoop subreddit.^[9]

Krikon @Krikon_ Replying to @MorshuMmm and @RooperSixth Trust no one not even cooking mama 1:21 PM · Apr 5, 2020 · Twitter for Android

On April 5th, 2020, YouTuber^[10] videogamedunkey posted a video about the controversy. The video accumulated over 1.1 million views in 14 hours.

Search Interest

External References

^[1] Twitter – @CookstarMama

^[2] IGN – The Cooking Mama Game for Switch That Came Out, and Then Disappeared

^[3] 4chan – /v/ Thread #502111269

^[4] Twitter – @Gay_Furby

^[5] Twitter – @MorshuMmm

^[6] Twitter – @itssimontime

^[7] Twitter – @Wunkolo

^[8] Twitter – @CookstarMama

^[9] Reddit – What is going on with Cooking Mama cookstar?

^[10] YouTube – Mystery of the removed game Cooking Mama Cookstar

Recent Images 26 total

View All Images

Recent Videos 1 total

View All Videos

Load 35 Comments

Cooking Mama Cookstar Cryptomining Rumor