Arcade Archives Pac-Land was released today on PS4 and Switch and fans immediately noticed something.
Ms. Pac-Man has been removed from the game and replaced with the character Pac-Mom, a big change from the original release. The reason for this dates back to the original Ms. Pac-Man game which was a modded version of a game called Crazy Otto, created by General Computer Corporation (GCC) in the US and came to be via a deal with Midway and GCC. This left GCC with some rights to the character and AtGames has purchased a stake as well.
Due to this dispute, Bandai Namco has taken to tweaking any Pac-Man re-releases that feature Ms. Pac-Man. It is likely not the last time this will happen either.
Bandai Namco previously sued AtGames over the use of Ms. Pac-Man, but AtGames ended up prevailing in the lawsuit at the time.
It should be noted as well that Arcade Archives Pac-Land is based on the Japanese version of the game, and there were changes made to the US version to better tie into other media.