Cooking Mama franchise sells 1.6 million units in US

by Alexander Sliwinski { Jan 30th 2008 at 3:00PM }

From its humble beginnings as a simple title on the Nintendo DS, the Cooking Mama franchise has gone on to sell 1.6 million units in the United States. The press release touting the accomplishment is quite awkward in how it plays with the numbers. For example, it says the original Cooking Mama on DS sold 1 million units, which means the two sequels make up the other 600,000, and that's fine --- but it's no coq au vin with white asparagus and a glass of 2004 Ravenswood Cooke Zinfandel.

Majesco CEO Jesse Sutton says the success of the franchise is like catching lightning in a bottle. Although the Cooking Mama games obviously cost very little to make, it might be time to generate more lightning. Since the first game did well and subsequent games didn't enjoy the same return, it means Majesco can't feed on Mama's cooking alone.

Tags: cooking-mama, cookingmama

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

paragraph @ Jan 30th 2008 3:03PM

Keep on making a cheap game with unique controls and good gameplay and you'll have atleast one person buying :-P

markhill66 @ Jan 30th 2008 3:10PM

This was actually a really fun game. I marathoned it for three hours one day, and never got bored with it.

Paragraph is right. Huge budgets and complex controls a good game does not make.

-Mark
http://www.threevue.com

paragraph @ Jan 30th 2008 3:16PM

Unless you're EA... or have a good name to tarnish....

Superman
Spiderman
Golden Compass
Fantastic Four
Hulk
Jaws
Neverwinter (NWN2... not so hot IMO)
Mario
Zelda
Pokemon

You get what i'm getting at...

jsn @ Jan 30th 2008 3:33PM

and did you play it much after that 3 hours? I know I did not... Between myself, the wife and all our friends we got maybe 4 hours total out of it. It offered no real challenge and the controls were kinda clunky. Another chimp level "see the gesture, do the gesture" disappiontment.

xFenixKnightx @ Jan 30th 2008 3:20PM

I prefer the M rated title:
Cooking With Naked Girlfriend

Jerk Face @ Jan 30th 2008 3:45PM

Dude, I love it when my wife cooks naked! It's kind of the Best Thing Ever.

baby sea tuna @ Jan 30th 2008 3:47PM

Watch out for grease splatters!

Korova @ Jan 30th 2008 4:34PM

Naked Floor Polishing Mama FTW~!

Worst Review Ever @ Jan 30th 2008 3:35PM

They just need to mix it up a bit. Take a cue from EA and put the same gameplay with a different sounding name. Something like "Grilling Daddy" or "Pastry Pop pop" or "Sous-Chef Step Mama". Something like that.

WiNG @ Jan 30th 2008 3:37PM

I know someone who's doing testing for Cooking Mama 2.

Be afraid; be very afraid.

Shagittarius @ Jan 30th 2008 3:46PM

Cooking Mama 2: Cook Harder: Electric Boogaloo: The Revenge

baby sea tuna @ Jan 30th 2008 3:48PM

This game was fun for about 5 minutes. All of the work of cooking, and none of the rewards? Where do I sign up?!

ClarkyCat @ Jan 30th 2008 3:57PM

Americans like food?! Stop the presses!

Luke @ Jan 30th 2008 4:23PM

Unlike Europeans, who just cook great food, but never eat any!

ThornedVenom @ Jan 31st 2008 3:44AM

Us Asians cook great food and eat at anytime of the day. ;P

Luke @ Jan 30th 2008 4:23PM

Or: Pssh, food? That's sooooo 2007

Mr Khan @ Jan 30th 2008 5:14PM

Better than Mama!

shivr @ Jan 30th 2008 6:44PM

I will say one thing for this game, it taught me how to chop onions more efficiently IRL

Dan D. @ Jan 30th 2008 7:21PM

I actually bought one of these games.

Shockgamer @ Jan 31st 2008 12:37AM

There is no god.

Deck @ Jan 31st 2008 1:06AM

This.... is sad.

ThornedVenom @ Jan 31st 2008 3:45AM

I actually saw a classmate playing Cooking Mama in class during break. He's a hardcore gamer.

Yet I still fail to understand what makes the game so amusing.