Resi Evil: Mercs 3D: no save data reset

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 27 June, 2011

To combat second hand sales?

UPDATE: The UK version of Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D, which has just landed on Eurogamer's desk, confirms the Tiny Cartridge report. The manual reads: "saved data on this software cannot be reset."

ORIGINAL STORY: It is impossible to delete save data from upcoming Nintendo 3DS game Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, according to a new report.

The US version's manual reads: "saved data on this software cannot be reset", according to pictures published by Tiny Cartridge.

The website speculates this may be a deliberate ploy on behalf of Capcom to combat second hand sales of the game.

Eurogamer has asked Capcom and European distributor Nintendo for comment.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (52) Latest comment 8 months ago

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  • Ford #1 8 months ago

    I'm sure that will be super-effective, well done Capcom!

  • tomjoadsghost #2 8 months ago

    Lets just hope there are no hilarious save game affecting bugs in the game then.

  • TheRealBadabing #3 8 months ago

    Remember, this is the same company that refused to release a fully complete version of Street Fighter on PC just in case someone pirated it.

  • Nevfx #4 8 months ago

    This is stupid. There just going to damage the whole trade games in thing, which everyone loves. They will be stopping people from buying the game pre-owned, which means after a few years when they stop selling new ones, NO ONE will be able to get the game and start from the beginning.

    So alll there doing is fucking themselves. Stupid ridiculous idea.

  • JoeGBallad #5 8 months ago

    I think that's what they call a 'dick maneuver specialé' on the continent.

  • Vice.Destroyer #6 8 months ago

    That's novel. And bizarrely restrictive. I wonder how long it will be that you have to spend 40MS points every time you lose a life in a game? Because that will be the next step, isn't it? Reliving the arcade experience..., at home.

  • StolenGlory #7 8 months ago

    And here I thought Project Ten Dollar and all it's detestable ilk were taking the piss.

    What a dick move.

  • SpookyTang #8 8 months ago

    Capcom in dick move shocker, really sick of them this generation and will ignore this game on principal.

  • kinky_mong #9 8 months ago

    So in other words if you buy the game second hand you don't have to spend ages unlocking all the levels and characters. Not the biggest of deterents to be honest.

  • Eraysor #10 8 months ago

    No sale.

  • tomjoadsghost #11 8 months ago

    you win capcom, i guess we're going to have to grit our teeth and buy it new then.

    If we lived in some kind of bizarro world where this was a free additional mode on RE4/RE5 we'd have an option but as it stands you can keep making this less and less attractive and we're all going to buy it regardless.

  • mcreddie #12 8 months ago

    @Vice.Destroyer

    Dear god, that really is the future isn't it.... I can already sense a Microsoft employee rubbing their hands together in preparation of deploying this dastardly scheme.

  • Monkeyspoon #13 8 months ago

    Good idea. Why do they care what someone thinks about their game if they didn't give them any money for it. People who buy second hand deserve to get less of a game. You wouldn't buy a second hand car and expect it to be like new and have the milage reset.

  • Whitster #14 8 months ago

    People seem to really get on their high horse about these practices to encourage new purchases, but always neglect the fact that none of them make the game unusable, yes it makes the experience different from the new version, here you may have all content unlocked or you may miss out on a few missions/items/cars etc with project six quid but considering some of the more hardline attitudes they could have taken, one use unlock codes for the whole game, etc, its a pretty fair compromise. As long as it's clearly marked on the box, or mentioned at the point of sale (which is where the issues lie as the shops are more interested in flogging you the second hand copy regardless of end user satisfaction) then the customer has made an informed choice to puchase a copy of the game where they know several aspects are missing/already unlocked.

    If anything though a practise like this could backfire, as if people are willing to pay for unlocks of existing content on EA games, those same people may wait a week or two and pick up second hand copies of games like this knowing the shop couldn't wipe the cartridge after trade in.

  • Gaol #15 8 months ago

    Was already a dick move seperating this from Revelations.

  • bad09 #16 8 months ago

    " People who buy second hand deserve to get less of a game"

    What a stupid comment. If I bought an coffee table off someone should I expect 3 legs because IKEA don't get a cut?

    Too many gamers are too emotionally attached to corporations and have been brainwashed by the horseshit this industry feeds them in order to erode the consumers rights on the products they buy. All this "boo hoo we deserve money from every single person who plays our game boo hoo!" is utter utter nonsense, they release a product, sell it and that's it. What consumers do with those products after is of no concern to them.
    Edited by 1 at 27/06/11 @ 11:07

  • mode7 #17 8 months ago

    Is there a way to reset the data on the current 3DS games? I haven't even bothered checking...

    I have a habit of starting games, getting a little way through them, forgetting about them and then coming back to them months later. I often clear data before I start a fresh with games as I don't remember where I've got to and want to start it from the beginning.

    My point is that I have no interest in selling games on, but this is still going to cause me problems. It seems like a shitty idea to me.

  • b0bb1ns #18 8 months ago

    So what happens if you're the original owner, but just want to revisit the game and start over?

  • Stuz359 #19 8 months ago

    I wish publishers would learn. Restrictive DRM does not deter priacy, it encourages it.

  • Iain #20 8 months ago

    I foresee the following: Shops won't accept Mercs as a trade in beacuse of this > Customer gets angry because he/she can't use the trade in to buy another (possibly new) game > Everybody loses

  • silversun #21 8 months ago

    I have canceled my pre-order because of this and i am a big resident evil fan.
    I am standing up agaisnt this i know everyone else will not but i am disapointed because of worry this will have on other games following this lead.

    Thank you eurogamer for letting us know about this.
    Edited by 1 at 27/06/11 @ 11:22

  • dadrester #22 8 months ago

    While I fully support stuff like project $10 (after all you're only screwing second hand customers who in reality are not your customers in any shape or form) I find this approach wrong as it's removing expected features from perfectly good paying customers. Depending on gameplay and what happens if/when you roundtrip the game this sort of thing could remove replayability (though in mercenaries case it's probably less of an issue)

  • mingster #23 8 months ago

    If this is true that is as people have said 'a total dick move' by capcom.

  • Pac #24 8 months ago

    Great move Capcom. Enrage second hand buyers and encourage piracy. Genius.

  • Futaba #25 8 months ago

    Fuck you, Capcom. *spits*

  • TheStatics #26 8 months ago

    Surely you would be able to start a new game and overwrite an existing save though?

    Otherwise you'll only be able to play it through as many times as there are save slots??

  • Ryze #27 8 months ago

    Well, if that's not a hacker's challenge, I don't know what is.

    Gauntlet has been laid down.

  • Primatum #28 8 months ago

    I once played this game on my ds while my battery was almost done for. Too stuborn to stop I just went on. All of a sudden the game auto saved and right at that moment my ds turned itself off. Can you imagine what happened? Yeah, the save game was GONE!!! That was bad, but maybe doing it on purpose with your Resident Evil Mercanaries 3D cart is really good! No, yes?

  • dadrester #29 8 months ago

    But to the publisher second hand buyers pose so much more of a problem than pirates. Neither are funding development in any way, and are not customers of the publisher what so ever. Why should the publisher even think about their 'feelings'. A good analogy I heard about whining second hand buyers not long back was;

    I sell Tom a cake, and as part of that sale I offer him, my valued customer, a free cup of coffee. Tom takes the cake and coffee and leaves. Having drunk the coffee he decides he doesn't really want the cake so he sells it on to his mate Jack.

    When Jack, who I've never even seen in my bakery comes in disgruntled demanding a free coffee, you know where I tell him to go?

  • bad09 #30 8 months ago

    "How are they "fucking themselves"? Capcom make zero out of used game sales."

    This has been explained many times in the 2nd hand debate. Many shops rely on the 2nd hand market to merely survive as there is VERY little margin in new gaming, most will tell you they only stock new so customers don't go elsewhere. If the industry keeps up this witchhunt (spurred on by nothing but their zero ability to deal with the huge high street chains who do abuse the market at the expense of new) 2nd hand will reduce, shops that sell their NEW games will close so there are less places on the high street to buy games or people will not be able to trade in these old games they are finished with for NEW and their NEW sales are actually reduced not increased.

    Messing with the 2nd hand market is potentially a VERY slippery slope that may not end with the result they think it will.

  • Whitster #31 8 months ago

    @Pac

    Not buying a new copy due to disagreeing with policys or content, is not a valid reason to pirate it.

  • Primatum #32 8 months ago

    dadrester, they dont have to care about any customers feelings and neither should the customer feel anything for a company.
    Your analogy doesn't make sense. If I buy a second hand car but before that happens the factory rushes in and takes away the wheels unless I pay for them top currency, everybody will cry foul. Now, it doesn't matter what you believe is right. If these publishers find it hard to deal with second hand sales they either accept it like any other industry does, or they go find petty ways to annoy a huge part of their customer base. They will find out soon enough what gamers think of this. Hopefully when this game is unsuccesful ( which it wont be because most people do not read these news articles about an option in the game) they will realise what mistake they made and not blame it on the market / succes of the franchise.

  • spudsbuckley #33 8 months ago

    This game already had me on the fence because it looked a tad "score attack pointless"-y.

    Now i'm definitely not getting it because i trade in most stuff when i'm finsihed with it and this will have terrible trade-in value if most places will even accept it.

  • apoc_reg #34 8 months ago

    ha, how dumb!

  • -cerberus- #35 8 months ago

    I'm not buying this worthless spin-off regardless. However, it does suck for those of you that still buy into this mess of a series. The least you can do is unlock everything the game has to offer and sell it on eBay at a higher price.

    Oh yes, there is definitely a market for 100% unlocks ;)
    Edited by 1 at 27/06/11 @ 12:10

  • BraveArse #36 8 months ago

    I was going to buy this day one. I'll be waiting until it reaches a second hand price before I touch it now.

  • Incarta #37 8 months ago

    Pure evil!

    And also genius. Suprised no other company thought of it before. it's going to be interesting to see if this does effect sales of the game. If it doesn't impact them too badly, this could become standard. That is a worrying thought.

  • L0cky #38 8 months ago

    @bad09

    I'm not against second hand sales; I believe in our right to sell on what we purchase. I'm also totally against the "you're not buying the software, you're buying a license to use the software" crap.

    So my problem isn't with second hand sales; it's with the high street stores and the sheer scale of their exploitation of second hand sales.

    On the one hand you're saying that detractors of second hand are too supportive of publishers and developers who are just corporations; but at the same time you're extolling the suffering of high street stores - which are also just corporations; so the logic is a little hypocritical.

    I couldn't give a crap if GAME or gamestation went out of business because margins on new games are too small. There are many other ways for us to buy games. I do however give a crap if good developers go out of business, because nobody else is going to make the games they do.

    The problem isn't the ability or right to sell games second hand; it's that the front line of retail is smothering the market with second hand. It's not good for the industry.

    People like to make analogies to cars, or washing machines; or IKEA coffee tables. If you go into IKEA, they're not killing their suppliers by selling 90% second hand. When you go to a Ford dealer they're not selling 90% used cars with no upstream revenue; and when you go to Argos; their catalogue isn't 90% second hand goods. They don't do it, because it will turn them into flea markets and it will kill off their suppliers.

    However, go into any GAME or gamestation and yes; 90% of their stock is second hand. They completely strangle new sales. HMV, Argos, Tesco, Play and many others are joining the model for the short term money. It's the veracity of it that is the problem; not the principal.

    So when a publisher comes up with a hairbrained idea to try and retain some value in selling their game; it's the publisher that may be implementing it badly; but it's retail that's creating the problem that they're trying to solve.

  • Incarta #39 8 months ago

    Another very valid point is that even if you do buy it new, if there's only one save slot, you'll only be able to play it through once. This screws everyone! Bad move Capcom

  • HyperTails #40 8 months ago

    Getting really fed up with publishers trying to desperately combat second hand sales.

    What they fail to realise is that they are setting themselves up for a fall.

  • systems #41 8 months ago

    Pre-order cancelled.

  • Monkeyspoon #42 8 months ago

    What people need to realise is that only a small portion of buyers will know or care that the saves are locked. Most people wont know anything about it. So all the people protesting and saying they won't buy it now are just hurting themselves not Capcom. But think they are lying and will get it or had no plans to anyway saves or not.

  • bad09 #43 8 months ago

    @ L0cky

    Well you misunderstand me there I was talking of smaller indepedent stores who need to survive on 2nd hand, and in many areas that's the only option you have on the high street (I do mention in my 2nd post that the reason for this witchhunt on the market is the big chains who are the root of the problem).

    I do understand there is a problem within 2nd hand now but my problem with the way they are going about "dealing" with it is it's the consumer and the small players in games retail who are suffering not these big chains who actually do it because the industry can't/won't address the perversion of the market by the likes of Game. It's almost like these big chains hold them by the knackers and the industry simply went "OK we can't deal with the problem so we'll screw the consumer and the little guys in the hope that trickles down to these big chains".

    That thinking is wrong, personally I don't see why they don't invest in these big chains and gain some revenue that way. Anything has to be better than stepping on consumers and small retailers to get to the big greedy boys who are indeed souring the relationship between new and used that has been there since the beginning.

  • silversun #44 8 months ago

    "What people need to realise is that only a small portion of buyers will know or care that the saves are locked. Most people wont know anything about it. So all the people protesting and saying they won't buy it now are just hurting themselves not Capcom. But think they are lying and will get it or had no plans to anyway saves or not."

    Had it preorder up till today it would have shipped tommorow or wednesday.

    I first got resident evil 2 on ps 1 and then resident evil 1, i am a long time fan.

    I even got tofu unlocked in resident evil 2.

    Would like to buy the game yes but i agaisnt stuff like this and can see many games in future i might have to avoid buying because way game publishers are making changes , i dont mind some project 10 seems fair i think and i use steam but limiting games and reading the plans they had for street fighter 4 arcade pc ,is making me unsure about capcom and buying games from them.
    Plus i hate new dante look and dragon dogma is probley only game i might buy from capcom in next year.

    I better stop posting on this topic i having some sort of fanboy rage lol.

    Edited by 4 at 27/06/11 @ 13:22

  • acousticwilliam #45 8 months ago

    Had this on pre-order for a Summer trip but have just canceled based on the save thing. I will wait until it's £10 because no one is buying it. I'm guessing Revelations has Mercs mode when it releases!
    Edited by 1 at 27/06/11 @ 14:46

  • RawNinjaKid #46 8 months ago

    oh god, sounds awful. First copy-protected PS3 game saves, that can only be sure of a 100% transfer rate using their cloud based PS+ service and now this!

    Merc is a cool RE4 and 5 bonus feature, but no way does it deserve a full release as a stand-alone title!! Especially at full retail price!

    I know they've added new music and teaked the stages and stuff, but it still should remain as a cool bonus feature of a full RE title.
    Edited by 2 at 27/06/11 @ 15:30

  • Pac #47 8 months ago

    @Whitster

    "Not buying a new copy due to disagreeing with policys or content, is not a valid reason to pirate it."

    I never said it was. I do not agree with any form of I.P. theft for whatever reason. However you would have to very naive to believe that this move will not encourage piracy.

    Pirates are always looking for an excuse to justify their actions. This is just another that they can use.

    Should I spell it out?

    Pirates get the full game > second hand buyers get substandard game. Therefore any one thinking of pirating the game will have more reason to do so.

    Quite simple really.

  • lolercopter #48 8 months ago

    I'd say "boycott it" but it's likely it will bomb. No need, then.

  • Beano #49 8 months ago

    "oh god, sounds awful. First copy-protected PS3 game saves, that can only be sure of a 100% transfer rate using their cloud based PS+ service and now this! "

    Maybe off-topic, but copy protected saved can be moved via system transfer or backup/restore.

  • Dizzy #50 8 months ago

    And with this Capcom has joined my "no buy" list.

  • L0cky #51 8 months ago

    @bad09

    I agree that indie shops aren't the problem. The high street retailer really does have the publishers by the knackers though. The publisher can't threaten to pull supply because that will only end up with a 90% second hand retailer becoming a 100% second hand retailer.

    Despite being swamped by second hand sales; those 10% new sales will still make up the majority of the publishers' revenue. I've no doubt that it's retail pressure that keeps digital prices up as well; so competing there is not a solution either.

    I hope for the days that digital overtakes mainstream bricks and mortar, so it can be competitively priced. Yes, we'd lose the ability to resell; but if that means much cheaper prices on new and old; and a much more diverse, less risk averse industry then so be it.

    Then again, you were right when you said the publishers and developers are just corporations. If retail and second hand suddenly stopped being the problem; there's no guarantees we'd see the benefits (here's looking at you Nintendo).

  • acousticwilliam #52 8 months ago

    Could they patch this game save rubbish with an update?