Say you spend a dozen hours with Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D and hand the cartridge to your buddy, who decides he'd like to start from square one. Delete the data, move on, play. Logical.
Except...
That option's not included in Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D. There's a line in the manual that makes this abundantly clear:
"Note: Saved data on this software cannot be reset."
The narrative that's been building amongst fans is how this represents a move on Capcom's part to push back on used game sales. If you want to have your "own" progress in Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, you need to buck up and purchase a brand-new copy of the game at $39.99.
As Tiny Cartridge points out, some Japanese shops are reportedly selling used copies of the game for very low prices because the data can't be reset, lowering the incentive for users to sell.
Capcom's issued a statement to me disputing this, however.
"Secondhand game sales were not a factor in this development decision," said the company, "so we hope that all our consumers will be able to enjoy the entirety of the survival-action experiences that the game does offer."
If used games aren't the issue, what is? Is there a technical reason that's preventing them from including data reset? That part's not totally clear, but here's what Capcom said.
"In Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, all mission progress is saved directly to the Nintendo 3DS cartridge, where it cannot be reset," said the company. "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."
I've followed-up with Capcom and will let you know what I hear back.
Regardless, if personalized progress is important, a used copy is out of the question for now.
Somehow Ocarina of Time allows you to delete saves, even though it saves them directly to the cart. Must be Nintendo magic.
That's some BS if I ever heard it.
and I feel like that sucks for the user. Because every so often when I am playing a game I just want to start completely from fresh with nothing else saved and go through it all again.
@pyromaster222: My brain travels. I made the page concerning New Purchase Incentives, so I've already thought a bit about this topic, then I moved to the subject of 3D.
If this game is a glorified Mercinaries mode, Why would save games matter? Shouldn't it be like a "ha! beat that!" score game?
Well that....... is odd. If not to curb used game sales, then why the hell include such a strange feature. Leaving that decision up to the players seems to have worked fine up until now...
To be honest, I wasn't going to buy the game in the first place, but now I'm REALLY not going to buy it.
Used game sales were not a factor at all? That's fucking horseshit.
What a crock of shit. I don't understand why something like this would even exist or happen. I don't have a 3DS and never buy used games, but how is this beneficial to ANY consumer. What if i wanted to start over and "prestige"?
I know I like to start from the beginning of a game after I've beaten it at times. So this potentially hurts all consumers, not just those of used copies.
This is filthy, and Capcom are liars.
All I see is shit coming out of their mouths. A whole lot of it.
@Matthew: Right on dude. Vita is going to be different though... right? I already put $200 down so please tell me it will be different...
If they wanted to limited used sales, they should have just sold it digitally...
@RE_Player92: Dude, if nothing else, it will be worth it just for the touchpad alone. I like touching the games to manipulate and such, but it sucks having your fingers take up valuable screen real estate. Having the same ability, but to make it so you don't cover up any of the action happening? Yes please.