Cooking Mama: Cookstar is a game that released a few weeks back by Planet Entertainment on the Nintendo Switch...but if you look for it on the eShop, you won't find it. It was there on March...somethingith (I can't find the proper date now), but vanished a few hours later. Its disappeared from any online stores too, save for Ebay. If you want to risk getting Coronavirus in exchange for a copy, you might be able to find a cartridge in the wild, but your chances are unlikely.
So, what happened here? Theories were circulating that the game was overheating Switches and ruining Switch batteries. But the biggest rumor was that the game was a front for stealing credit card information to turn into Bitcoin - something that wasn't actually that unlikely. The first press release for the game was boasted as using "blockchain technology", something that is mainly used for cryptocurrency. Even Nintendo themselves had no idea why the game was taken down - they just did as Planet told them to.
But in the end, Cookstar's takedown ended up being because, well, the game is a bootleg. The developers *were* working with Office Create/Cooking Mama Ltd. initially; but due to the game's, quite frankly, TERRIBLE quality, the license holders backed out, asking Planet for it to either be heavily polished or canceled entirely. Instead of listening to them, Planet just released it anyway...with a lawsuit being filed mere hours later. So Planet entered panic mode, and removed every mention of the game they could.
I think its also quite clear that Planet knew EXACTLY what they were doing. The game's trailer was unlisted on Youtube, and the game just shadow-released; no pre-orders or anything. This was an intentional bootleg, and I really doubt there was miscommunication here. Its fascinating to see something like this happen, and it really makes you wonder how many similar, completely-buried cases like this there have been over the years...
(and by the way, Cookstar also features a bootleg favorite: an animation of Mama...doing the Gangnam Style dance. yes, really.
https://twitter.com/inkopolis/status/1246944015683063809)