3DS Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D game saves can't be erased

[Icemage]

Well, now isn't this a strange development.

Used Copies of Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D Will be Forever Haunted by the Last Owner

Used Copies of Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D might not be worth your money because Capcom made it impossible to for anyone to erase game save date from the game card.

Capcom included a note in Resident Evil's game manual that reads: "Saved data on this software cannot be reset." Translation: Everything is permanent.

What isn't clear, is why they removed the ability to erase saves. We contacted Capcom for comment and will update this story when they respond.

Nintendo 3DS games save directly to the cartridge, so by picking up a used copy of Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D you're getting a copy with someone else's game save already written to it. That means that everything may already be unlocked within the game when you pick it up, leaving you without much to do except beat the previous owner's high scores.

An interesting way to combat used game sales, but also a bad move for people who like to replay games.

Personally, I think this is one of those cases where a publisher has gone too far in the direction of combating use d game sales. Taking away the chance to replay a game and feel like you're earning everything like a new playthrough is just not a good idea. Then again, this is the same Capcom who thought putting in a requirement to be connected to PSN for some of their PS3 downloadable releases was a good idea, too, so perhaps it shouldn't surprise me to see something like this.

Love it? Hate it? Discuss.


Icemage

[Raydeus]

Re: 3DS Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D game saves can't be erased

Lulz

[Cheezeman3000]

Re: 3DS Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D game saves can't be erased

My question is, what if you want to go back and do something differently? I guess since it's more of an arcadey, non-linear type of game, this won't be an issue.

[Malacite]

Re: 3DS Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D game saves can't be erased

shitty game anyway.

between RE4 & 5 I had my fill.

I like RE2 and 3's versions better anyway.

[Raydeus]

Re: 3DS Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D game saves can't be erased

RE4 was kinda nice though, sort of. Would've been much better if Leon had gone for the Harem ending instead of trying to play it cool.

But yeah Remake, 2 and (specially for me) 3 ftw.

[Feba]

Re: 3DS Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D game saves can't be erased

Eh, same thing with my copy of F-Zero.

For the SFC.

Buying used cartridge games has always been iffy on if there will be anything saved to them or not. Not all games are easy to wipe saves from or start new games on.

sorry guys I know I'm supposed to be all offended and shit but I'm finding it really hard to give even a single damn here.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: 3DS Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D game saves can't be erased

Capcom does this for Street Fighter IV and RE5 Mercenaries on PS3, as the full article stated.

Doesn't seem like an anti-used measure at all, more to the effect Capcom seems dead-set against people creating new profiles so their win/loss ratio doesn't look like shit on the leaderboards. Yeah, people do that. If they care enough about trophies to play an utter shit game to get them, you think they wouldn't restart anew to look prettier on the leaderboards?

Capcom also punishes you for ragequitting via disconnect mid-fight and counts it as a loss, then matches you with people that also ragequit like that - this started with Street Fighter IV and Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom - even if sometimes it just was an honest freak disconnect.

So you buy a used copy of RE Mercenaries and get a used spot on the leaderboards. The new player loses nothing and gains everything. Most people just wanting to go online and shoot zombies probably won't even care.

Its a little weird, but not anti-used in the slightest. The full content of the game is there, if you bought it used months after the fact, you probably were not there to get on the leaderboards anyway.

Not an issue for me.

Still getting it tomorrow.

[Malacite]

Re: 3DS Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D game saves can't be erased

Wait, but the PS3 is saved to the hard drive...


Are you telling me that if I wanted to right now, I can't go delete my save file off my HDD?

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: 3DS Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D game saves can't be erased

Wait, but the PS3 is saved to the hard drive...


Are you telling me that if I wanted to right now, I can't go delete my save file off my HDD?

You're free to try. It seems the PC version also had this issue but they worked it out.

[Malacite]

Re: 3DS Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D game saves can't be erased

Well yay, yet another addition to the already too-long list of grievances.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: 3DS Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D game saves can't be erased

It seems like a silly grievance for an arcade game. I don't see why you would need save portability for either of the games, really. They're both straight-up arcade style games and Capcom wants to keep the leaderboards honest.

If I have have a friend with Street Fighter IV and I have Street Fighter IV... why would need to bring my save to his place? I bring my arcade stick or controller and that's that. If I want to play Mercenaries with another person on 3DS, they will have their own copy locally and online.

There are also tons of games with one save slot on a cart, as Feba stated, with no way to back them up.

Dragon Quest IX and tons of other GBA/DS games
Metroid Prime Trilogy

MMORPGs are kinda like that, too, you play those all the time and there's no client side back-up. Client-side saves are some of the worst things you let players have access to in online games. Its the root of most hacking issues.

So you're mad at Capcom for not being dumb and they should just let people hack their games to shit and back? We should just let people wipe their histories so they cansmurf the shit out of newbies to inflate their win/loss column and make the experience miserable for newcomers?

Okay. Both of those sound like a great time.

[Malacite]

Re: 3DS Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D game saves can't be erased

It seems like a silly grievance for an arcade game. I don't see why you would need save portability for either of the games, really. They're both straight-up arcade style games and Capcom wants to keep the leaderboards honest.

what? I only rented RE5 for my PS3 once, and it'd be nice if I could clear off the space on my HDD as it's already near-full (keep in mind i have an original 60 GB model)

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: 3DS Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D game saves can't be erased

RE5 Mercenaries is an arcade game. I'm sure you can delete the install data for RE5, just not the save data.

As far as I can tell, all RE5 Gold Edition data can be deleted and saves can be deleted or copied, so perhaps its just the original release of RE5 and RE5 Mercenaries mode that it applies to.

[Icemage]

Re: 3DS Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D game saves can't be erased

Capcom Denies Used Game Sales Had Anything to Do With "Forever Saves"

The inability to start fresh on a copy of The Mercenaries 3D after someone has played it was a design decision that had nothing to do with second-hand game sales, Capcom tells Kotaku.

Saved data on copies of Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D is permanent. Since Nintendo 3DS games are saved directly onto the card, that means if a copy of the game is given away or sold used it will include with it all of the achievements, unlocks and scores of previous owners.

Some gamers, unhappy with the design decision, question whether the permanent save is a way to try and reduce used sales of the game. Reached for comment this morning, Capcom denied that used sales had anything to do with the design.

"In Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, all mission progress is saved directly to the Nintendo 3DS cartridge, where it cannot be reset," a spokesman told Kotaku. "The nature of the game invites high levels of replayability in order to improve mission scores. In addition, this feature does not remove any content available for users. Second-hand game sales were not a factor in this development decision, so we hope that all our consumers will be able to enjoy the entirety of the survival-action experiences that the game does offer."

This isn't the first time that Capcom has come up with a creative way to handle save-game data. Playstation 3 versions of Street Figher IV and Resident Evil 5 lock save files to a console instead of the PSN ID.

I should note for clarity that SF4 and RE5's locked game saves CAN be deleted and backed up; you just can't use the data transfer or restore utilities onto another PS3; the saves will not transfer. You CAN, however, back up the saves using the data backup and restore it to the SAME machine (i.e. if you replace the hard drive).


Icemage

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: 3DS Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D game saves can't be erased

Capcom Denies Used Game Sales Had Anything to Do With "Forever Saves"

I should note for clarity that SF4 and RE5's locked game saves CAN be deleted and backed up; you just can't use the data transfer or restore utilities onto another PS3; the saves will not transfer. You CAN, however, back up the saves using the data backup and restore it to the SAME machine (i.e. if you replace the hard drive).


Icemage

They can be moved to PSN Plus cloud saves as well, but again, just to restore it to the same machine as prior.

Ultimately, I'm just not seeing the "anti-used" angle people are screaming about.

Now that I have the game in my hands, there was really no reason - perhaps outside of major memory restrictions - to keep things to one save. There are no leaderboards for the game, which came to light in reviews today and just 2 player co-op online.

In general, its the exact sort of experience you had with Mercenaries on RE4 and RE5, so if you like that sort of thing and want it on the go, that's all good and it plays as competently as you'd expect.

They could have done a bit more, I'll admit, but since Shadows of the Damned got me on this RE binge, I'll gladly take it.

For some people, unlocking all the stuff is just going to seem like a hassle anyway and there are plenty of people that just want to blast shit and not care about high scores. I'm not saying I'm one of them, but there just doesn't seem to be malicious intent behind the design. The person who buys used just gets a game with most or everything unlocked.

I'd be more worried if Capcom was selling characters on the Nintendo eShop for this game, but that's not happening thankfully. All costumes and characters are unlocked in-game.

For those expecting something wholly new with a story-driven experience, there's not much to take away from this. I didn't come in with that expectation, though.

If you were looking at this game to play the Revelations demo - don't bother, it lasts all of three minutes and its the same demo from E3. Though what I will say regarding it is that in those three minutes its got the tone, setting, sense of dread and fear down pat better than the whole of RE5, so that's a good sign.

The demo did sport regenerating health and unlimited ammo, but again, the demo was three minutes long at best. I guess when its that short I wouldn't waste time with health and ammo items, either.

So if they can make a stronger survival experience this time out, we should be in for a great game there.