Cooking Mama: Cookstar Rumoured To Be A Cryptocurrency Mining Scheme After Online Delisting

Cooking Mama: Cookstar hit retail stores last week — but the game was never launched digitally. According to reports, it was briefly listed in the U.S. Switch eShop, but was swiftly taken down. But before you buy the game in Australia, be aware that there’s accusations the game was harbouring a cryptocurrency miner.

According to IGN, Cooking Mama: Cookstar was delisted from the U.S. eShop and scrubbed from the eShop completely in late March. In Australia, it doesn’t appear to have been listed at all — not even as a ‘coming soon’ title.

Kotaku Australia reached out to Nintendo and publishers Planet Digital Partners earlier this month to confirm the digital release status of Cooking Mama: Cookstar, but neither party has responded to multiple emails about its lack of listing so far. Information on the Cooking Mama: Cookstar is extremely hard to come by and it’s unclear who represents the title in Australia.

The reason for this secrecy may have been uncovered recently, with Twitter user @MorshuMmm sharing screenshots from a private Discord server in which it was alleged Cooking Mama: Cookstar uses Switch consoles to mine cryptocurrency and personal information of players. It’s important to note that this claim has not been confirmed and the source is currently unknown — but Cooking Mama‘s interest in blockchain technology is not unheralded.

The original 2019 press release announcing the game’s arrival emphasised the blockchain elements of the game. Publisher Planet Digital Partners highlighted new modes for the game in the release alongside the fact that each game would have a ‘unique blockchain private-key’ that allowed for improved DRM, nebulous rewards and an ‘enhanced multiplayer experience with dual expression’ which would make every copy of the game unique. It’s now alleged this meant the game would install cryptocurrency mining software on user’s consoles to discretely mine bitcoin for unknown parties.

As Siliconera reports, the game allegedly caused Nintendo’s network severe problems and led to Switch overheating issues for some players, which is what alerted Nintendo to the problem and caused the original delisting — but again, these rumours are currently unconfirmed.

A report from Twitter user @Toadsanime seemingly contains a response from the developers of the title — but the tweets do not list who exactly the developers are. The official statement from this mysterious party reads as follows:

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

When asked to respond to the 2019 press release, they had this to say:

Twitter user @DoesItPlay1, an account dedicated to providing relevant information around physical media, confirmed that the game works offline, without a linked user account and on formatted consoles seemingly debunking the cryptocurrency mining theory. The account speculated that if the currency or blockchain technology did exist in the title, it has since been removed.

The current status of Cooking Mama‘s blockchain tech is thus far unconfirmed.

Despite these concerns, the title is still freely available at retail stores in Australia, with both EB Games and JB Hi-Fi listing stock online and in store. If you’re planning on purchasing the game, it might be best to wait until this whole mess has been sorted out first.


The Cheapest NBN 1000 Plans

Looking to bump up your internet connection and save a few bucks? Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Kotaku, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments


12 responses to “Cooking Mama: Cookstar Rumoured To Be A Cryptocurrency Mining Scheme After Online Delisting”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *