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Ms. Pac-Man is a gaming icon alongside Pac-Man himself, but that hasn’t stopped Bandai-Namco from replacing the character in a recent Pac-Land re-release, likely due to an ongoing rights issue.
As spotted by Twitter user Nickisonlinenet, the newly released Arcade Archives port of Pac-Land replaces Ms. Pac-Man (and Jr. Pac-Man) with new characters, Pac-Mom and Baby Pac-Man respectively. Gone is Ms. Pac-Man’s iconic red bow and boots, instead replaced by a character wearing heels and a pink hat. Presumably, this new Pac-Mom character will also appear in the upcoming Pac-Man Museum +, a collection of 14 Pac-Man games which features Pac-Land but notably does not include Ms. Pac-Man, one of the franchise’s most popular spin-offs.
So what’s the issue? It all stems from the fact that Ms. Pac-Man was not developed by Namco itself back in 1982. Instead, it started life as a game called Crazy Otto and was created by a company called General Computer Corporation (GCC) as a conversion kit for the original Pac-Man, which modified Pac-Man in some interesting ways to create a new experience. Desperate for a new sequel, and with no official Pac-Man 2 on the way from Namco, Pac-Man’s U.S. distributor Midway signed a deal with GCC to release Crazy Otto as Ms. Pac-Man and sell it as a brand-new game.
The game was a hit, but Namco was not happy about the whole situation, stating it had never authorized the release of Ms. Pac-Man. Namco canceled its distributor agreement with Midway in 1984, after which Namco earned the rights to the Ms. Pac-Man name but GCC would continue to earn royalties off Ms. Pac-Man in the future. Flash forward to 2019 and a company called AtGames acquired Ms. Pac-Man’s royalty rights from GCC, setting off a lawsuit between Bandai Namco and AtGames that was settled in 2020.
While Bandai Namco hasn’t officially commented on Ms. Pac-Man’s replacement and the lack of her titular game in the upcoming Pac-Man Museum + collection, fans are assuming that the character’s long legal history is to blame. That makes it unclear when fans might see the character make a return. Pac-Man Museum + is slated to release May 27 on Xbox and PlayStation platforms, as well as on PC and Nintendo Switch.
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