RANT: The Situation With AtGames and Ms Pac-Man
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- Опубликовано: 21 сен 2023
- YEUP, we are finally tackling this subject. The grasp At games has over the Ms Pac-Man royalty rights has been a source of contention. It's limited the ability to re-release the classic , and has also prevented her from appearing in any recent Pac-Man titles. A frustrating situation for fans, and all one can do is vent about it..... and that's what I'm doing here!!
Also i intend this to be the last time I speak of this in any greater detail, I'm just sick of the subject.
Special thanks to Mariofan123311 for the thumbnail!
Special thanks to purpleghost2004 for the intro!
Mz Paul talking about it / 1652187553317912577
Songs used:
Kirby 64 - popstar theme: • Kirby 64: The Crystal ...
Ms Pac-Man Quest For The Golden Maze - main theme: • Ms. Pac-Man: Quest for...
Ms Pac-Man Maze Madness ost: • Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madne... 
Игры
added the MZ Paul tweet in the description even though i forgot initially. Thanks for Joining the premiere!
If I could use Ms. Pac-Man (or use “Pac-Mom” who could use a much more original name and the eyes, nose and lips of Ms. Pac-Man) and cast Grace Park as the character (either her or Pinky whom I’ve always been thinking of instead casting Mindy Lee Raskin from Pac-Man World 3 (and possibly Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac with the rest of the PMW3 actors for the ghosts as the bosses including Martin T. Sherman as Clyde… and of course, Terence McGovern as Professor Pac-Man like in the movie) or Angie Harmon from Rizolli & Isles as), I would.
But as for now, let’s just hope either AtGames (one of the worst companies a lot of people the world has never heard of until recently) will either do something useful for once (like become a more apologetic and less exploitative company and reuse Ms. Pac-Man like in Maze Madness which deserves a threequel that is more like the original than Quest for the Golden Maze) or suffer from the same fate Blue Sky Studios got (but didn’t deserve as much despite my feelings towards its films being quite hit or miss)!!!
And as for AtGames’ misuse of Ms. Pac-Man’s son and (possible and if so, likely former) daughter-in-law who happens to be Blinky’s daughter… do I even need to explain how much this bites?!
It’s never fun to talk about this subject, but thank you for getting the word out. Makes me really happy to not be the only one calling into the void for her lol.
Toward the end of the video, you mention the possibility of the situation being resolved via AtGames eventually collapsing. While I certainly won't rule it out given current developments, I also would like to add that there have been some developments on Bamco's end that shine a bit of hope on the situation as well.
Mainly, the fact that Pac-Mom was hardly acknowledged immediately following the release of Re-Pac, to the point where during the remake's 1-year anniversary just last month, they straight up omit her from any of the promotional images or videos. Her *only* official acknowledgment in 2023, was from the Twitter account for the Southeast Asian division of Bandai Namco of all things, making a Mother's Day post - that is literally it. Even Chomp Chomp (or Pac-Buddy) got more attention this year, what with those two artworks (one celebrating Pac-Man's birthday this year, no less) featuring a plush toy in his likeness.
Now if you look at the real Ms. Pac-Man you may be surprised. Her game was included in the most recent reissue of Pac-Man's Pixel Bash (which came out at the tail end of 2022), she was acknowledged (uncensored) in the Namco Museum of Art episode on Pac-Man, the official Japanese Twitter account for Pac-Man straight up *advertised* a sale on Arcade Game Series: Ms. Pac-Man just a few months ago and finally the game was licensed to MyArcade for another rerelease... or rather port.
Yeah, in an utterly bizarre move, MyArcade's newly-released Ms. Pac-Man handheld units actually feature a homebrew *port* of the game to Mega Drive clone hardware. If any of this sounds familiar, MyArcade had done the same practice regarding the original Pac-Man a few years ago, only there was less of an attempt to keep up this facade of them selling you a genuine representation of the arcade game back then - the new Ms. Pac-Man homebrew is played on a rotated monitor this time with full-scale graphics, so you may actually be fooled from a quick glance. Importantly, this does *not* appear to be a call that Bamco made, since other companies like Arcade1UP have been licensed to use the arcade ROM proper in their products; this simply seems like continued incompetence on MyArcade's part.
...MyArcade mini-rant aside, well I'm sure you get the idea. Once you compare the activity between the two characters side by side, it becomes pretty clear who's *actually* being prioritized over who in 2023 - a rather stark contrast from last year if you will.
The straight-up refusal on Bamco's end to even mention Pac-Mom publicly, while Ms. Pac-Man is (at the very least) still kept on life support in the background, tells me they are at least aware of all the backlash and outrage that had transpired since Arcade Archives Pac-Land. At this point, I can't imagine them trying to continue sweeping Ms. Pac-Man under the rug for much longer, especially since they now know how badly it'll damage their PR if they make another game with Pac-Mom in it.
I guess the big questions now are, how and when do they intend to finally secure Ms. Pac-Man's royalty rights, so we can all finally leave this shitshow in the past? There's a few ways they can go about it, from simply paying AtGames royalties on new Pac-Man games, to going such extremes as to pull an EA; acquiring AtGames completely just to abolish them shortly after. Regardless of *how* they do it though, Ms. Pac-Man's simply too much of an icon for them to continue sitting around doing *nothing* to fully secure her rights, and no amount of expies will ever convince the public to forget her existence and contributions to the video game landscape as a whole. I seriously get the feeling that someday, *hopefully* in the next few years, she'll finally be allowed back into the franchise she deserves to be a part of.
When that day will finally come, I only wish I could say...
Those are some interesting bits of information. And yeah it is quite peculiar that they just straight up don't include pac mom in any of those materials.
Here's hoping this gets resolved
The 45th anniversary of Pac-Man is in two years from now (and Ms. Pac's is just a year after), so who knows?
The sad truth is that even some people working at Bamco have already confirmed that no one who is higher up actually cares about her anymore, so even if AtGames inevitably goes under and the rights revert back to them they have disowned her. It could be because of legal rights, or because GCC made it and not Namco, or anything in-between, we don't know. All we know is that, at least for now, Bamco genuinely does not care. What hurts me more knowing about all this though is not that they don't care, but the fact that they attempted to keep her around for as long as they did until giving up. Take Jr. Pac-Man as an example, they never once tried to get him and his game outside of a vague resemblance with Junior, or Pac-Jr., or whatever they call him, either way it's only for a cameo. No fruit altering the dots mechanics, no Yum-Yum, no themes and sounds, just the basic design of him wearing a propeller hat and that's it. But that pales in comparison to Ms., because although Jr. technically had a worse fate being doomed to obscurity, Ms. had the opposite. It's a terrible realization to know that the only reason why they kept Ms. around at all until this point is not because they cared about the game itself or what accomplishments it stood for, but because it was making them money. Once that money on their end dried up, they tried to sue for getting full rights to it. And when that didn't work, they just packed up and left as if nothing happened. Any of the remnants left are most likely out of laziness or some legal loophole that can keep them out of trouble. *Maybe* she was once important and meant something to Namco, but when they merged with Bandai her fate was already sealed as their interests in most past things started to dwindle. Bamco might've not been the main reason for her disappearance, but it's a symptom of a bigger problem. It’s like tipping a ball off the edge of a mountain, it starts slow but it grows bigger, goes faster, and causes more sweeping destruction as it goes farther down…
The good news though is that the community of Namco fans, and Pac-Man fans as a whole, *refuse* to forget Ms. and Jr.. They might not objectively be as good and tightly crafted as the original, but they still deserve to be recognized and learned from as good games. And to hopefully help settle down the gloominess of this situation, I highly recommend checking out a fan game called Pac-Man 37. It's only in version 0.37 right now, but it is still a worthy successor for replacing the simple ROMs of those games as it includes the original, Plus, Ms., and Jr. with all of their mechanics from the ground up that you can mix them up with. You can find the link to it on Old80s: Gaming's channel in the description of their dedicated video. If that's not a love letter to those games, then I don't know *what* is. Normal people might forget everything about Ms. and have already forgotten about Jr., but as long as fans of Pac-Man and arcade games are out there, they will never die. Bamco can forget about them all they want, but knowing that those two games are in legal limbo already, they can't stop all of us. Emulation and fan creations are around for a reason, and that's preservation and appreciation.
…Wow that was needlessly deep. Sorry for the long comment btw. (Not that I think anyone will read this, let alone the whole thing) *Lol*
I had the displeasure of getting one of those AtGames Genesis plug n plays gifted to me for christmas as a kid
I was so excited until i heard that the sound emulation was horrible and half the games were shovelware. They didn’t even have Sonic 3.
Legit same! I wonder if yours contained that one Snake homebrew game that had ear-screeching music straight from Satan's bum...
The workplace conditions aren’t OSHA worthy yet but it’s dangerously close
This is gonna be good!
Especially with the Pac-Smith thumbnail!
Ken Penders and Atgames. The banes of two franchises.
The banes of both PacMan series, and Sonic Archie Comics all I can say is screw them both towards the inner reaches of Hell!
Back to back banger videos. Get their ass, Numen!
i remember when i was younger and i saw one of those atgames genesis handheld things and i wanted one but then my mom said no
good video btw i miss ms pacman
I still cannot believe that this situation hasn't been resolved yet it deeply saddens me that
Ms Pac-Man is continuing to be affected by this unfortunate turn of event's
I've wished AtGames goes bankrupt and Bamco gets Ms. Pac-Man back one day :(
3:51 Gee, my right ear sure enjoyed that
I tried to minimize its effect to the best of my ability. Sorry that may have been quite a shock to your ear. Though I'd like to think it's just atgames sound design being that bad
They burned lots of bridges with the last firmware update, was planning on buying a 4K ALP, that was until they hosed my Legends Ultimate and broke all my games, the only reason I bought an ALU while waiting on the 4K stuff to release.
Good video, but Namco is at much to blame for the debacle as AtGames. Bandai Namco, wanting the full rights to Ms. Pac-Man, began devaluing the character over the years just to coerce General Computer into giving up the rights. GC, not wanting to give in to Namco but tired of the whole predicament, accepted AtGame's offer--which was much better than Namco's. GC could now move on, free of the whole affair, and AtGames had shrewdly outmaneuvered the greedy Namco.
Had Bandai Namco simply paid what Ms. Pac-Man was worth in the first place, none of this would have happened. Karma.
Both parties are equally guilty, Corporations are not your friends.
Do you think if we bring their poor employee treatment to a brighter light, stores might be convinced to not carry their stuff, thus causing hurting their glue and scotch tape fortress?
It would have to be to the point that they seem really bad, like 1 chip challenge kinda bad.
A group of pac man and sega fans isn’t enough to cause any meaningful change. We need more voices.
I think they are only working with atgames still due to a contract, though that's just speculation
Well its that time again that we have to talk about this hell spawn company, this is like what? The second or third time that I will be seing these type of videos again?
hopefully this is my last time talking about this
Yeah I hope so, I mean is Crap Games gonna do anything with Ms.Pac-Man anyways?
I really need to play Maze Madness. It looks like fun.
If only there was some sort or
rerelease or something...........
These pacman videos are pretty refreshing. Thanks for the video!
This is gonna be interesting
For as much shit that i talk to you, pac-man, i actually hate atgames more. Looking forward to this video, and im sorry about your friend.
I thought that maybe namco was using the strategy of pretending that what at games have is worth nothing and that they can work without it, but that seems less likely if they're still working with them unless they're legally forced to do it.
I'm not gonna be able to watch the premiere because it's at 3:00 AM ):
I AM SO FREAKING READY!
ALRIGHT, conspiracy theory time. Tl;dr Bamco want's Ms. Pacman to be useless to Atgames, so they can buy here back for a cheap price, like what they did with GCC.
This is going back to around 2007-2009, around the time Bandai bought and Merged with Namco. I think that Namco was fine with paying the royalties to GCC for ms. Pacman at the time, as it wasn't to much, since she was showing up in everything, like Arcade GP 2 and PWM3. BUT, Bandai didn't like that, which is why we suddenly started seeing a bunch of different "replacements" for he, such as Pac-woman, and Pac-Marie, as well as major things, like Ghostly Adventures.
After sometime of not using her, I think Bandai were planning to buy the royalties to Ms. Pacman from GCC at a lower price, since they hadn't been paid anything for almost a decade, barring a Pacman Museum DLC. HOWEVER, the whole fiasco with Atgames happened, were GCC in a very scummy move, sold the royalties to Ms. Pacman to Atgames behind Bamco's back. And as a reminder, this isn't the first time Atgames did this, as I heard that they tried this same thing Sega and the Genesis Flashback they made.
So now, I believe a pissed of Bamco is re-doing the same tatic they did with GCC, where they don't use anything related to Ms. Pacman to essentially bleed the rights dry from Atgames to buy at an even lower cost. Just this time, Bamco is extra strict, making sure that not a single trace of the actual character Ms. Pacman is found in anything, which would explain the why Ms. Pacman leitmotif being in Re-pac, but the Ms herself having a Pac-Mom double for her.
Sort of correct. Namco, being greedy, didn't want to pay General Computer what the character was truly worth. So, instead, Namco began devaluing the character, hoping to force GC into selling the character off later for cheap. Instead, GC simply sold the IP rights to AtGames, which was more than willing to pay the full value. Namco essentially sabotaged itself. Play with the sword, die by the sword.
Okay I love this thumbnail.
great video spitting all facts ,, much needed to be addressed
Keep spreading the word people! Keep digging up those bad employee reviews! Keep making rants and showing your love for her! We need all we can to get her back, and maybe... JUST MAYBE... Ms. Pac will get the spotlight again someday.
I used to think it was weird that she wasn't in Pac-Man Party. I really hate how these companies are too lazy to secure the rights to their properties. Characters like Timmy Turner (from Nickelodeon) and Tarzan (from Disney) sort of have the same problem as Ms. Pac-Man. The company Nelvana owns the distribution rights to the first 5 seasons of The Fairly OddParents, and Nickelodeon is too lazy to work things out with them so that he can show up in their crossover games. Apparently, Tarzan is owned by the Edgar estate who does the Tarzan books, so Disney would have to go through them so that he can appear in their crossover games. I guess that explains why Tarzan wasn't in Disney Infinity or any of the crossover mobile games. I want Tarzan to show up in Disney Speedstorm. I've been enjoying that game, but it seems unlikely at this point. Back to Ms. Pac-Man, I think it'll suck especially not seeing her in a Pac-Man World Rally remake, Pac-Man World 2, or a Pac-Man Party 2.
unlike timmy and tarzan, bandai namco wanted all the rights for ms pacman and no charges
Rip Ms PacMan 1998/2023/2024 face it the future sucks the past better!!!
we've been SMACKLEDORFED!!!
That's not even a word and i agree with you!
Oh Boy, I'm the First!
Congrats
@@SoshiTheYoshi Thank you!
LFG!!!!!!!!!!!!
atgames is true pac-man archenemy
more like the numale from pacland
Holy frick
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