The more I think about it, and you’ll have to excuse my rather personal rant here, the more this whole Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D issue really gets my goat. On a number of levels too – it’s not just the fact that Capcom seemed to think that removing the ability to reset the game was an OK thing to do, but more that they’re flat out refusing to say why it was done.
Apart from saying it wasn’t to do with trying to cut down on second hand copies of the game. Which, in my humble, personal opinion, is tosh. It’s literally the only reason I can possibly think of – there’s no technical reason within my comprehension that suggests there’s a reason why a few bytes of data can’t be overwritten at will (it’s been like that since, well, Zelda on the NES if my memory serves me correctly) so what else can it be?
[drop2]And for anyone that thinks second hand sales won’t be affected – have a look at the Japanese resale value: about four quid. And the UK selling price? A staggering RRP of £40. Yes, really.The fact is, nobody wants to take home a pre-owned copy of a game and be forced to stare at someone else’s save game. Sure, it’s not like Mercenaries is a fully fledged Resident Evil game – cynics might suggest it’s an expanded mini game with an exciting demo of another game thrown in – but even for a score-based game it’s hardly enticing to know that you’ll be using someone else’s scores.
And then there’s the matter of Nintendo letting this one pass, too – it might well have been Capcom’s decision but there’s a cartridge manufacturer (and in some territories) a publisher at fault too. When your game has a big bold ‘controversy’ section on its wiki page (and little else) it’s clear there’s an issue here.
And no, I’m not being stingy. I’ve only played the game briefly and haven’t read many reviews so don’t know whether it’s worth the full asking price yet, but this was something I was planning to pick up in a couple of weeks second hand whilst Zelda’s still taking up most of my 3DS time. Not any longer, this whole situation has put me right off the game and I’m hardly alone here.
Am I over-reacting? That’s up to you to decide, of course. But I don’t want to run the risk of having to play the game with all the guns, perks and costumes already unlocked – doing so is part of the appeal of something like this. And there’s only one save slot too – which means my family can’t play through the game separately either.
So, no, I don’t think I am over-reacting. Instead, I’m voting with my wallet. And of course, just to really stir things up, there’s always the iPhone version for 59p…
This is a personal blog and may not represent the views of TheSixthAxis.
tonycawley
I can genuinely totally understand developers and publishers wanting to protect their income and make something out of the pre-owned market. Dlc is a great way of doing that, as are limited editions with 1 time bonus codes. This, however, is a terrible way of doing it. Just plain stupid as nobody wants to buy a game with somebody else’s save file on it. I remember my Mrs buying a “new” ds game, only to get it home and discover it had somebody else’s save file on it. Needless to say, it went straight back to the shop. Difference there is, said save file can be deleted.
online4ntagonist
I am absolutely against these kind of policies. You all (I don’t own a DS) should just not buy it and let ’em sort it out. What if all the second hand car and bike sales would get the manufacturers aroused, that’s just weird.
tactical20
Can’t really compare a car and a game, lol
hazelam
what about a book and a game?
a cd and a game.
a movie and a game.
out off all those similar industries, it’s only gaming that thinks it deserves more than its fair share.
tactical20
Where can you go in the highstreet and buy a second hand book or cd or movie that isn’t a charity store?
Last time I checked, Game wasn’t raising money for Cancer Research.
Forrest_01
CEX sell second hand movies & cds (as well as games).
david
So with the same train of thought – If I buy a car that is second hand, Ford, Toyota should also get money for the transaction?
I dont think so and I hope consumers boycott Capcoms games. A second hand copy is the sole property of a user once cash has changed hands the same way any product is, even if this is to a vendor, and what the vendor chooses to do with it, in this case sell it, is none of Capcom, FORD or Toyotas etc business.
colmshan1990
But the key difference is that Ford claim that they sell you a physical car, while game publishers claim that they sell you a license to use their software…
tactical20
And one is a CAR and the other is a GAME.
hazelam
and i claim the game publisher are full of shit.
they sell you that copy of the game, while you don’t own the intellectual rights to the contents, so you couldn’t copy them, but you do own that copy, and you can transfer ownership so long as you do it legally, by selling or giving it away, but not copying it.
no matter what bullshit legal mumbo jumbo they put in their license agreements that will not change.
the law > any license agreement.
Forrest_01
CEX (apart from books).
Forrest_01
Wow, not sure what happened there, that was supposed to be a reply to tactical above! :/
Sympozium
Well eh? haven’t they heard of copy-protection? Capcom have suddenly become comedians again. What else will they reveal that will make them a huge embarrassment??
Smallville2106
I don’t really see it as a problem. I have never bought a pre-owned game and I have never really seen a pre-owned game at a good price.Buying a game pre-owned close to release what do you save? 3,4 5 pound. After the first 2-3 weeks the majority of games start to be discounted on internet shops and I’ve found that pre-owned games are then more expensive than the new ones.
If people are not happy with what they have done, then don’t buy it. Simple really. I don’t understand this self-entitlement that gamers (in general, I don’t mean everyone.) have.
bunimomike
Self entitlement is a strange choice of words. This is about the simple right to sell your game onto someone else and try to recoup a decent amount of invested money so you can reinvest in another title.
It’s good to know that you stick with new games but try to understand this from a different perspective. People often buy games on the likes of eBay where there might be a bargain. God knows I have. I still buy new (on the odd rare occasion) but I don’t have the spare cash to buy new most of the time.
Smallville2106
I know what you’re saying but the devs don’t care about this.
Forrest_01
They should care – Without the pre-owned market, I (like many, many others) wouldn’t buy half of the new titles that come out as I simply couldn’t afford it. Like it or not, the pre-owned market actually helps them shift product & they are mad if they don’t realise that.
I would also like to point out that I don’t feel that games are badly priced (as most of the time you get plenty of bang for your buck), it’s just that not everyone can afford to splash out £40 every couple of weeks & pay a mortgage.
jcor
I agree with Forrest. I prefer to buy new games but if I couldn’t trade in my old games against a new one, I wouldn’t be able to afford to buy half as many as I do.
Slimeh
I nearlly always bought games brand new only buying second hand if it was a game that was hard to find brand new.
1. because i wanted to support the games companys so that they could make more games
2. because I like games to be brand new and not scratched,soiled or missing instruction booklets etc
I also do not sell games I buy
But now I is skint and probably will be for some time to come soooo I buy what I can when I can for as little as possible, I can no longer afford to splash out 40 quid a time (well I did for GT5) very often if at all now so the second hand market is a goddsend to me and others like me.
And if it wasn’t for the second hand martket where do the companys think other people get there money to buy new games with!
If the second hand market was totally done away with it would accomplish 3 things
1.Piracy would increase
2.Companys profits would go down due to number 1. and due to also people not being able to afford to buy new games because they can’t sell there old ones
3.Less people would be playing games!
When I is loaded with cash again (prays) I will buy plenty of brand new games at full price but I will most likely for example not buy GAME A-5 because when I was skint the Company that made GAME A-4 managed to find a way of not making it worth my while buying it cheaply so I didnt buy it at all now im not interested in GAME A-5 any more
SO come on games companys use the carrot a bit more and throw your sticks away.
Or at least keep the stick for the pirates only
At least second hand games keep some of the money within the industry in one way or another even if the money does not go straight to company A for Game A
This is a personal opinion and may not represent the views of anyone else. :D
Doofer_Nasenmann
I dont care for second hand. But I want to be able to start my own game fresh over once in a while! I do that all the time: Replaying a game = erasing saves first! Sometimes its fun to just unlock everything again.
I buy everything new. This one I wont buy at all. Its a gimped game even first hand.
hazelam
i think i’ve made my distaste for this kind of thing clear.
apart from how i hate the greed behind this kind of thing, i also don’t believe that preventing us from being able to resell our property is even legal.
i don’t know if something like this would be totally illegal, because it doesn’t completely prevent the legal transfer of ownership that the likes of the steam drm on pc do.
but, they’re still deliberately devaluing your purchase.
another thing i don’t like about this practice is the hypocritical nature of the publishers interest.
if the game is crap or broken in some way, well “buy at your own risk”
“you bought the game it’s yours now we have no responsibility”
you used to be able to return games to the stores, i’d bet money it was because of the publishers that we can’t anymore.
but if we want to try to sell our games on, suddenly then they claim ownership.
apparently then they own it again.
that’s why the publishers love services like onlive, where we pay for games but never actually own them, they’re all stored on a central server and we’ll never lay our hands on them, let alone be able to sell them on.
it’s staggering the way this industry has been allowed to operate for so long.
you know, the ironic thing is, this greed is so short sighted, all they’re thinking about is short term profits.
i can pretty much guarantee that if they did get rid of the preowned market like they want, the gaming industry would be far worse off.
most trade ins go towards new game purchases.
the profit from trade ins allows game stores to sell new titles for less than rrp.
take away those two and you’ll see a lot less games sold.
gaming has grown into one of the biggest media industries on the planet, with the preowned market going hand in hand all the way.
they got used to making obscene amounts of profit over the last few years, then we get a worldwide recession, that the gaming industry weathered better than most, and profits are down a bit, though still outstripping the music and film industry from what i understand, so now they’re going after the perfectly legal preowned market.
it’s funny though, in most industries, if you’re not making enough money, then you’re doing something wrong.
but in gaming, if the publisher isn’t making enough money, then it’s the customers fault.
i’ve said it before, and i’m saying it again.
this industry is heading for another crash.
their greed is making them push far too hard.
and something’s gonna give.
jcor
I agree with everything you’ve said. Greed will eventually get the better of the gaming industry.
CryptikTim
I think it’s bollocks Capcom saying it’s not to do with pre-owned sales, as that’s obviously the motivations. However, having said that I can understand their point of view, as for example, you mentioned were planning to pick the game up second game in a few weeks – well Capcom don’t care about you then, they make no money from you, from their point of view you might as well have not bought it in the first place.
Obviously developers and publishers will use more and more tactics like this, as the pre-owned market offers no income to them. Asking them to support a group of users that are literally not on their radar in the first place is a bit daft.
hazelam
not preventing us from exercising our legal right to sell our property is about a million miles away from supporting preowned buyers.
how do capcom support their new buyers anyway?
selling them dlc seems to be their main way of doing so.
and the possibility of being able to sell the same dlc more than once for a single copy of the game can only be a good thing i’d imagine.
The Lone Steven
This is one of the worst desicions in gaming history. Okay, i buy a lot of my games preowned but that is mainly due to finical issues or new copies are no longer aviable. Capcom are being a bit nobish with this as this is a balant attempt to destroy the preowned market. You can’t even lend this to a friend which punishes all gamers that have brought the game.
I really hope this fails or i will avoid any format that stores the save on it. E.g. DS,3DS etc..
You are not overracting Alex as i would be very annoyed if i brought a game only to find out it had been completed for me without any way to delete the save. I am suprised that Ninty have allowed Capcom to implent this as they are usually consumer friendly.:o I doubt that Resident Evil Mercenaries will be a success.