Fans have reacted negatively to the removal of Mrs. Pac-Man from the upcoming remake of Pac-Man World.
Bandai Namco announced Tuesday that it is working on Pac-Man World Re-Pac, a modernized version of the 1999 PlayStation platform.
The original game had Pac-Man travel through six worlds in an attempt to save six other characters, including Mrs. Pac-Man.
However, the trailer for Re-Pac shows that Mrs. Pac-Man has been replaced by the recently introduced new “Pac-Mom” character.
Pac-Man World Re-Pac – Trailer
The replacement is the result of Bandai Namco’s attempt to keep Ms. Pac-Man out of her games until she resolves the ongoing dispute over the character’s royalties rights.
Ms. Pac-Man has always had issues with royalties – the character is not an official Namco production, and instead was created by Midway (which has been granted the rights to produce Pac-Man products in North America) and a group of American programmers at the General Computer Corporation (GCC).
As a result, anytime Ms. Pac-Man appears in Bandai Namco products, the GCC is said to be owed royalties.
The situation was further exacerbated in 2019 when AtGames, a company that specializes in miniature consoles and mobile devices, released a small Pac-Man game locker, despite Bandai Namco’s claim that it had not been given permission to do so.
Bandai Namco has filed a lawsuit against AtGames, which a week later struck a deal with the GCC to obtain the revenue share of Ms. Pac-Man it allegedly owes.
Since then, Bandai Namco has apparently made efforts to ensure that Mrs. Pac-Man does not appear in any of its games, in order to avoid further complicating the dispute over royalties.
After the trailer was released, a number of fans lamented the removal of one of the series’ most recognizable characters.
One Twitter user said: “I’m all for the creators who get the credit and the money they deserve, but the situation with Ms. Pac-Man is complicated and corrupt.” Tweet embed. “This has resulted in Namco simply avoiding any use of the character whenever possible. There has to be a new deal that leads to the character being used again.”
“While I’m sure the remake of Pac-Man World will be good, I can’t help but be troubled by Namco and AtGames’ position regarding the use of Ms. Pac-Man,” Tweet embed. “Is it really that hard to use as a lovable character or are we just going to stay stuck with Pac-Mom?”
Other fans have noted that despite the character’s removal, Ms. Pac-Man’s music can still be heard in the trailer, indicating that Bandai Namco will still keep the soundtrack intact.
This is the second time that Mrs. Pac-Man has been removed from one of her previous roles.
The Pac-Man Museum+, released last month, is a collection of 14 Pac-Man arcade and console games, but despite being one of the most popular titles in the series, Mrs. Pac-Man isn’t one of them.
Her object has also been removed from the assembly version of Pac-Land, and replaced with Bandai Namco’s new Pac-Mom character.
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