Cooking Mama Devs Deny Data, Crypto Mining Allegations

The new installment for popular cooking game series for Nintendo Switch was recently under fire for supposed cryptocurrency and possibly data mining activity. Cooking Mama: Cookstar’s developer 1st Playable denied such accusations, according to Coin Telegraph.

The rumor started after the game’s distributor, Planet Entertainment, announced that Cookstar will be “the first game to integrate blockchain technology on major consoles,” said an Insider report. The publisher is known as a blockchain gaming firm.

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Further suspicions about the situation arose when the game was pulled from the Nintendo eShop, the company’s digital game store, shortly after it was released. The game was launched on March 26 this year.

Cooking Mama Devs Crypto Mining Allegations

Allegations said that Cookstar includes a code that uses gamer’s Nintendo Switch units to verify crypto transactions and is integrated into the blockchain’s so-called digital ledger. This process, called cryptocurrency mining, requires massive computing power.

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In this case, the game supposedly diverts the processing power of the victim’s Switch to mine cryptocurrencies. It is also said to cause the unit to overheat while the game is running.

However, 1st Playable rejected the allegations on Twitter where it said, “As the developers, we can say with certainty there is no cryptocurrency or data collection or blockchain or anything else shady in the code.”

The devs also assured that “the Nintendo Switch is a very safe platform, with none of the data and privacy issues associated with some mobile and PC games.”

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Meanwhile, Planet Entertainment also posted on Twitter in response to the rumor. Denying the accusation, the Cooking Mama: Cookstar account said that the claims are “absolutely incorrect.”

According to the posts, “At Planet Entertainment, we explored both blockchain technology and cryptocurrency tokens,” they added, “we looked at these options as a means to allow players to trade in-game assets.” They further emphasized that they only explored the theory and did not implement it. Moreover, they assured gamers that they did not and will not use the concept in any of their titles.

As for the removal of the title from Nintendo eShop, a report from Eurogamer said that the intellectual property owner the of cooking game series, which is Office Create, terminated the distributor’s license on March 30 because of “intentional breach of license contract.”

The report revealed that Cookstar was released without the IP owner’s approval. Moreover, quality issues that were pointed out by Office Create have not been addressed prior to release.

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