It gets even more bizarre. Capcom have issued an official press release on the whole you-can’t-delete-your-save issue, relating the game to an arcade machine. Apparently they can’t be reset either.
Anyway, at least they’re responding to the widespread criticism.
“In Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, all mission progress is saved directly to the Nintendo 3DS cartridge, where it cannot be reset,” says the press release. “The nature of the game invites high levels of replayability, encouraging fans to improve mission scores.”
“The save mechanic ensures that both original and unlocked game content will be available to all users. Secondhand game sales were not a factor in this development decision, and we hope that all our consumers will be able to enjoy the entirety of the survival-action experiences that the game does offer. ‘”
“There was no intention of lessening the experience of the game,” says a forum post on the Capcom Unity forums.
“Essentially, RE Mercs was treated like an arcade fighting game. You unlock characters, levels, etc and they just stay unlocked as they would in an arcade machine. ”
“There was no hidden motive to prevent buying used copies. It’s not some secret form of DRM. It’s simply the way we designed the save system to work with the arcade type of gameplay. ”
There’s a comment further down the post, too, as part of a FAQ, which seems to suggest that anyone playing the game second hand won’t be losing out. “Anyone purchasing a copy of the game secondhand would have access to all the missions and skills that the original owner unlocked,” it says, “in addition to the content that was available to the original user.”
There’s little else to say – Capcom clearly think they’re in the right here. The game’s out tomorrow, and our review is here.
Source: Capcom.
Delriach
Honestly, it’s not really that big of an issue. If you are the type of person that keeps their games, this will most likely not bother you at all. It’s not like you’ll want to randomly start the game over again and force your way through the tutorials again. If you really want to do that, you can just select those missions again. I wonder if SEGA would say the same thing about Super Monkey Ball 3D. I doubt anyone cares enough to ask…
Personally, I’d prefer if I didn’t have to unlock all 8 characters and deal with the filler missions that don’t let you do everything. It’s not until the 3rd level (six missions), that you even get a real taste for what the game has to offer. Even then, there are still some limitations.
Obviously the option to erase a save is something that should have been included but it is my no means that big of a deal for this type of game. It’s not like you can’t replay everything. That’s actually the whole point of the game.
I’d rather people make a big deal that there isn’t an online leaderboard for a game that is all about getting the best score possible.
Foxhound
Sone good points raised…
jayjay119
I agree and disagree, for this game it is not a big deal in terms of gameplay, but in principle it is. This type of thing could pose problems for future kinds of games, Revalations for example, and if people roll over and take it now they (Capcom, and as a consequence other developers/publishers)will do it again in the future. And that’s what we have to think about, repercussions for the future.
Delriach
Yeah, that’s definitely the bigger picture. I’m surprised Capcom even stated that you couldn’t delete your saves. I wonder what would have happened if they did what SEGA did and didn’t tell anyone at all.
It is pretty stupid to remove the ability for absolutely no reason at all. It certainly doesn’t make the product worse if you have the option.
I bet Capcom couldn’t directly say that this was an attack on the used games market as that would make them look even worse and it would ruin partnerships they have. It’s still really shady of them to do though. I don’t like the idea at all but I also don’t like the idea that Nintendo allows this. It’s like the Sony DRM. Capcom and other companies wouldn’t be able to use it if it never existed.
nofi
It’s more about the resale value. It’s important to me to be able to trade my games in later for round about half their value – I can’t do that with this.
hazelam
that’s the issue i have with this.
are there any other industries on the planet where the manufacturer is allowed to deliberately devalue your purchases like this?
i don’t think it would be legal in any other business, so why is it being allowed in gaming?
bunimomike
Agreed. This mechanism has already crippled the resale value of the Japanese edition.
hazelam
they lie about it being able preowned sales, come on, anybody can see that’s why they did it.
but assuming we believed them that this isn’t about preowned sales, then why have they never once explained why not being able to reset your save actually benefits the player.
tonycawley
This is a nonsense excuse. Unlocked items staying on the game is not a reason to remove the ability to clear a game save. They could just have a seperate save file that stores the items you’ve unlocked, and one for game progress, so if I buy it second hand then I can still clear their game save and start over, but the items would still be unlocked. It’s so obvious what they’re trying to do, and lying about the issue is just making them look even worse!
Youles
Looking at TSAs initial article, it says Capcom “removes” the ability to erase Saved Data. So – I’m assuming this a patch or update here – their statement is contradictory as they say it was a choice during development of the game?!? Or have I assumed wrong.
I do think it’s a little silly to not be able to erase the data but if you can still play from the first mission, and choose to not use any of the unlocks until you would have them yourself, I can’t see it as a massive problem. It might encourage you to beat the previous high score.
jayjay119
Thing is though that may not exactly be a choice. With Resident Evil 4 and 5 for example, all your health upgrades and money automatically roll over, so you have twice the health you originally started out with and all the money you need to upgrade a weapon at will, which get a bit dull after a while. I have restarted Resi 4 tons of times now because of this.
Youles
If that is the case then it definately is still daft!! Silly Capcom
R4U Eldave0
They can sugar coat it as much as they like, if I picked up a copy of the new Mario game (for example) and every level was unlocked, star collected, etc I doubt I would bother playing it. I get my enjoyment from games by progressing through them, unlocking content, etc. A game without these things is pointless imo
The Lone Steven
Sorry Capcom but if i buy a game, i expect to be able to delete saves and create new ones. I would be annoyed if i brought a preowned game and found out that everything was unlocked as that reduces the replayabilty. I love to complete a game and unlock stuff by myself instead of someone else doing it for me. They say that people who buy it preowned are not missing out. yes they are. Progressing through the game at their own pace.
I normally don’t wish this on a game but i hope this bombs and does some damage to Capcom to teach them a lesson. See, what you made me do Capcom. You used to be good.:(*goes to buy a capcom poster just so it can be put on the wall and torn down dramatically*
BrainDiver
I don’t have a 3DS, so I wasn’t exactly gonna be buying this anyway, but this is just a huge dealbreaker. I hope it gets released on Vita like this so I can not buy it. ;)
bunimomike
Once again, give us incentives to buy new. Don’t try to break the second-hand market.
TheMekon
I keep my original games, but i also usually pick up around 75% of my games on all formats 2nd hand (wait a few weeks for folks to move onto The Next Big Thing:S.E)and pick up mint con.copy for good few pounds less-so not overly happy to see games headed this way.
Also, i lend games out to friends, borrow their games etc-Kinda puts a downer on part of that exp.where’s the sense of reward if by time i get it off a friend, all the good stuff is just sat there waiting?.
hunterstryfe
How can they say it is the same as an arcade machine? Back in the 90’s I unlocked Akuma on Street Fighter EX in the arcades on an arcade machine, and he did not stay unlocked. None of the fighting games really did. And oh yeah it was capcom