Ms. Pac-Man becomes Pac-Mom (and we explain why)
In the umpteenth collection Arcade Archives published by bandai namco, Ms Pac-Man is now called Pac-Mom. Does this mean that the female version of the gluttonous yellow ball has ended its relationship with the iconic Pac-Man? Nay, because it’s all a dark copyright affair, an affair that reveals a publisher reluctant to pay to keep the name of a famous license (the Ms. Pac-Man arcade terminal is even considered by purists as more successful than the Pac-Man terminal of 1980).
It all started in the 80s: Pac-Man fans (developers at General Computer Corporation) created an arcade game with a mod of the character from the original game. This mod is Ms. Pac-Man. Midway, then manager of most of the arcade games circulating on American soil, is particularly interested in this new title. A royalties agreement was therefore signed between Midway and GCC, an agreement which lasted until 1984. From that date, it was the turn of Namco, the original creator of Pac-Man, to in turn pay royalties to GCC for the Ms. Pac-Man arcade terminal as well as the various adaptations of the game on consoles.
so apparently I found out that the Arcade Archives release of Pac-Land that comes out tomorrow was modified to replace Ms. Pac-Man (as well as Baby Pac) to have the new Pac-Mom character from Pac-Man Museum +.
look at what you did to us AtGames pic.twitter.com/gEDNpXGMfV
— Nick C. (@nickisonlinet) April 6, 2022
In 2019, it is the turning point of the “case”: the company AtGames launches a mini arcade cabinet of Ms. Pac-Man on the market. Bandai Namco, which still believed to hold the rights to the game via GCC, saw red and sued AtGames. But now, it turns out that in the meantime AtGames bought the rights to Ms. Pac-Man from GCC while GCC did not notify Bandai of this handover The situation is suddenly reversed: it is finally Bandai Namco which owes royalties to the startup AtGames for its exploitation of the Ms. Pac-Man franchise!
The rest we know: Bandai Namco refuses to pay new royalties, and Pac-Mom now replaces Ms. Pac-Man in the Arcade Archives collection on Nintendo Switch but also in the next Pac-Man Museum + compilation.
