Bandai Namco replaces Ms. Pac-Man by new character Pac-Mom – Gaming – .Geeks

Bandai Namco has the character Ms. Pac-Man for the already released Arcade Archives: Pac-Lan replaced by Pac-Mom. The disappearance of the iconic game character is probably related to a legal dispute.

The incident was noticed by Twitter user Nick C and has according to Polygon everything to do with a lengthy legal dispute over Ms. Pac-Man. While the rights of the female yellow creature still belong to Bandai Namco, American console maker AtGames meanwhile owns the royalty rights to the character. For such a release, the Japanese game company would therefore have to pay royalties to AtGames.

To get around this, Bandai Namco may have opted for an altered look from what was originally Ms. Pac Man was. Unlike that character, Pac-Mom does not have a red bow, but a pink hat. Also, the mother character does not wear red boots, but pink shoes. For unknown reasons, Baby Pac was also changed in appearance.

ms. Pac-Man was originally created by General Computer Corporation. At least indirectly, since the company initially made conversion kits for existing Atari arcade cabinets. The Japanese company eventually held back, after which GCC laid the foundations for Ms. Pac-Man sold to Bandai Namco. Decades later, console maker AtGames bought GCC’s royalty rights to licensed arcade consoles.

For years there has been talk about fading away from ms. Pac-Man from the Pac-Man canon, almost always in relation to various legal disputes. A collection of Pac-Man games will be released in May under the name Pac-Man Museum Plus. It is a bundle of 14 classic games from the franchise, perhaps not coincidentally excluding a dedicated Ms. Pac-Man game.