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We May Know Why Pac-Man Got A Divorce

As one of the pillars of gaming history, "Pac-Man" has been around for a very long time — and it seems as though that time has taken a toll on his marriage. It is commonly known that Ms. Pac-Man is his wife, but recent re-releases of some older "Pac-Man" titles seem to have replaced her with somebody else. 

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Both Ms. Pac-Man and Baby Pac-Man appeared in the 1984 title "Pac-Land," both rocking the trademark Ms. Pac-Man red bow. As spotted by Twitter user @nickisonlinet, however, the new "Arcade Archives" release of the game sees that red bow replaced by a pink hat, along with matching gloves and boots on both character models.

According to "Pac-Man" historian Ryan Silberman, the character now in "Pac-Land" is known as "Pac-Mom," an entirely different character from Ms. Pac-Man. This swap has raised a ton of questions about Pac-Man and his personal life. The name would seem to suggest that Pac-Mom could be Pac-Man's mom, but she is replacing his (former?) wife here and the baby has matching clothes. Is Pac-Mom the new lady in Pac-Man's life? Unfortunately, "Pac-Land" has not been updated further to include an explanation for this change. 

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So why is Ms. Pac-Man — an icon arguably as popular as Pac-Man — getting the cold shoulder?

Ms. Pac-Man may have been changed due to royalty issues

Polygon's Owen S. Good has theorized that Ms. Pac-Man and Baby Pac-Man from "Pac-Land" were changed because Bandai Namco has to pay royalties every time the character is used. Back in 2019, Bandai Namco sued AtGames, a company that makes mini-consoles that plug straight into a TV, for allegedly interfering with Bandai Namco's attempts to buy the character rights from the original creators. Ultimately, AtGames managed to buy the royalty rights for itself.

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That means that whenever Bandai Namco uses Ms. Pac-Man and Baby Pac-Man, it has to fork over money to AtGames. It's important to note that Bandai Namco owns the property, so it can use Ms. Pac-Man any time. However, unless Bandai Namco wants to give money to AtGames for all future projects, Ms. Pac-Man is likely to be missing from anything "Pac-Man"-related. 

As noted by Polygon, the last time a new game was released that included Ms. Pac-Man was "Pac-Man Museum" way back in 2014, which was released on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. On the bright side, this situation has allowed people to speculate about Pac-Man's personal life, which is always fun.

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