Cooking Mama Cookstar Rumored Cryptocurrency Mine, Pulled From eShop
After being unceremoniously removed from the Nintendo Switch eShop, rumors of Cooking Mama: Cookstar being a crypto currency mining system have begun to circulate. This is something fans of the cooking simulator have been worried about ever since it was announced that Cooking Mama: Coming Home to Mama would incorporate blockchain DRM, which the company is said to have included because it allows everyone to have “subtly different” gameplay experiences.
The entire process of bitcoin mining, blockchains, and cryptocurrencies is something many people find difficult to understand, but it’s also something more and more companies have begun taking advantage of. As technology increases and the world slowly moves to an even more digital format, many analysts predict that cryptocurrencies could become the next big medium for transferring money safely, and there are even those who think countries should have all digital money, making it easier to protect and control. However, the process of obtaining cryptocurrency (mining) takes a lot of computer processing power, which is why some of the more unscrupulous blockchain and crypto companies have subtly inserted mining programs into other people’s products.
There is no proof as of yet that Cooking Mama: Cookstar on the Nintendo Switch is definitely mining for cryptocurrency, but it’s not impossible. As reported by IGN just two days ago, Cooking Mama: Cookstar was supposed to launch on the Nintendo Switch’s eShop, but it was pulled without any announcement after only “a few hours,” followed by Nintendo removing any trace of it’s existence from their digital store front. Earlier today, unconfirmed reports of Cooking Mama: Cookstar using the Nintendo Switch to mine cryptocurrency arose on Twitter, visible below:
It would be highly unlikely for a game like Cooking Mama: Cookstar, which received positive attention from PETA recently by promising to include a vegetarian mode, to be involved in anything as insidious as hidden cryptocurrency mining, but stranger things have happened. There are tons of bitcoin scams and mining programs embedded in dangerous files scattered all over the internet, and no one is immune to avoiding malicious software forever.
For now, these reports remain unconfirmed, but the strange circumstances surrounding Cooking Mama: Cookstar’s release and subsequent removal from the Nintendo Switch eShop, not to mention the franchise’s previous fascination with blockchain DRM technology, does give pause for some consideration. If any player happened to download Cooking Mama: Cookstar before it was pulled from the Nintendo Switch store, it may be better to delete it now, just in case… or at least keep an eye out for an official statement on why it was removed in the first place.
Sources: IGN, @MorshuMmm/Twitter
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