DOA4 bug erases save data

By Ellie Gibson Published 11 January, 2006

US gamers not very happy.

US gamers who finally got their hands on delayed Xbox 360 title Dead or Alive 4 last month are still not happy - since it appears their saved games are mysteriously disappearing.

That's according to a poster on the Gamespot forums, who recounted what happened after he'd spent ages playing through the story mode and unlocking loads of fighters.

"I played a few more sessions after that, and then booted up the game again only to find out that all of my [DOA4] save data was gone," the poster wrote.

"All of my unlocked characters, costumes, leader-board achievements, online ranking, ALL GONE!"

Oh dear. Tecmo admitted that there's a problem with the game, telling Gamespot: "We're aware of the issue... We're working to identify and resolve the potential problem with the technical folks at Microsoft." A patch is on the way shortly, apparently.

There's still no word on precisely when Dead or Alive 4 will be released in Europe, but chances are they'll have fixed the bug by then. Fingers crossed, anyway...

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (39) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Mirkan #1 6 years ago

    Echogamer

  • Heds #2 6 years ago

    So that's CoD2 and DOA4 now. Wonder if this might be down to the 360 storage rather than the games themselves...

  • Furbs #3 6 years ago

    No.

  • Zuiyo #4 6 years ago

    Say no to patches. It's the "save" russian roulette. Dare to save...

  • BartonFink #5 6 years ago

    Lock and load Furbs this could be a long one :)

  • Artemus #6 6 years ago

    Hmm, remember how Itagaki was saying how much he hates patches.

    Egg on that mans face.

  • OfficerSlade #7 6 years ago

    It seems that so long as you let your 360 dashboard profile load before putting the disc in the disc tray you are safe from this happening. Which seems to point to the problem being the Live profile loading process and not a disc data issue. Both the problem with CoD2 and this new one with DOA4 saves have the same work around, so surely this is an M$ problem.

  • Furbs #8 6 years ago

    ;) @ Barton.

    Was only a matter of time...

  • Huntcjna #9 6 years ago

    My play.com pre-order for this moved to 27/01/06 for release today! \o/

  • OnlyMe #10 6 years ago

    This is the negative effect of downloadable content on console games. Buggy games released before they should be and having to rely on patches to fix them.

  • Wobble #11 6 years ago

    @Huntcjna: I noticed this yesterday, not sure exactly when they changed it. but yes, \o/

    /in other news, play finally shipped their play n' charge kits \o/

    //starts petition to get the EG staff to harrass MS/HORI to release a decent stick in the UK instead of having to pay £70 to import one :(

    (o/
    Edited by 1 at 11/01/06 @ 17:16

  • Roamer #12 6 years ago

    This is the negative effect of downloadable content on console games. Buggy games released before they should be and having to rely on patches to fix them.

    Second that.

  • myiagros #13 6 years ago

    "This is the negative effect of downloadable content on console games. Buggy games released before they should be and having to rely on patches to fix them."

    although i agree with you that publishers should not use the possibility of future patching as an excuse to not fully test a game. Do you not realise that this is a good thing as sometimes errors do get through testing anyway.
    Before we would all have had to put up with the problems, at least now they can be fixed and we can enjoy the games as they were intended, without the need for a recall and reissue.

  • bivith #14 6 years ago

    "This is the negative effect of downloadable content on console games. Buggy games released before they should be and having to rely on patches to fix them. "

    You are the first person on the internet to say that.

  • Xerx3s #15 6 years ago

    "leader-board achievements, online ranking"

    Err, arnt these stored online? If so, wouldnt that make his story bs?

  • Nige #16 6 years ago

    "This is the negative effect of downloadable content on console games. Buggy games released before they should be and having to rely on patches to fix them."

    No- been there, seen that. When it comes to Xbox Live, there is a policy regarding patches (or autoupdates as they're known) - sadly I can't repeat it due to NDA, but it categorically states that this is not tolerated. It's a shame it isn't publicly known, because it demonstrates a level of integrity that is sadly lacking from most corners of the industry.

    If you're unlucky enough to submit a game to MS and have it fail, you have to fix it there and then. Anything that lost saved data would get booted the instant it was found.

    Take it from someone who has burnt MUCH midnight oil.

  • Mark II #17 6 years ago

    I spotted DoA 4 and Ridge Racer "in the wild" in an independent store last week - retailing for £55 each...

  • Balfa #18 6 years ago

    There's a similar bug in soulcalibur III for PS2 (if you delete or modify a save file that was on the memory card before the SC3 save file, you lose any Chronicles of the Sword data), but that was never reported by eurogamer :(

    Eurogamer, please give attention to the soulcalibur III bug because namco's current stance is "well just don't delete any save files" and we need your help to get them to fix the problem.

  • Xander_B_OXford #19 6 years ago

    Bug? BUG? This is nothing less than a stroke of design GENIUS on the part of the DOA4 creators!

    Imagine it... you've collected all the unlockables and have seen all there is to see. Where do you go from there? You will have done it all. You would be akin to Alexander the Great, weeping upon the realisation there are no world's left to conquer, no more asses to kick... But LOOK! The Xbox 360 has erased your save! You get to have the joy of doing it all over again from the beginning! What could possibly be better?

    This is one of the most impressively well thought out design features I've seen in a beat em up in quite a while, certainly better than anything you're likely to see on the B$2.

  • BartonFink #20 6 years ago

    Hey Furbs looks like they have arrived...

  • captain-future #21 6 years ago

    hmmm, first time I actually look forward for the EU-release? meh!

  • Beano #22 6 years ago

    Let's hope this is fixed in the PAL release - getting pretty damn tired of buggy Xbox 360 games!

  • Furbs #23 6 years ago

    I once had a team which was unbeaten in three years in Football Manager on the C64.

    Then the save tape I used got chewed up.

  • Beano #24 6 years ago

    Another MS-fanboy to the rescue :)

  • smelly #25 6 years ago

    Another MS-fanboy to the rescue

    Surely there arent enough decent games for there to be fanboys already?

    Or are people that blinkered they'll support anything? :-)

  • captainrentboy #26 6 years ago

    My copy of DOA4 is winging its way to me from Canada right now for less than i'd pay on its pal release(loving this ''it's up to the publisher if a game's multi-regional or not'' MS malarky)Sad to hear about this pretty major bug,but as long as it's patched quickly I really don't care too much.From the reviews it's been getting it sounds like it'll be a corking fighter.

  • Beano #27 6 years ago

    "Or are people that blinkered they'll support anything? :-) "

    Oh yes, because they expect Bill Gates to reward them for their loyalty with money or free stuff :)

  • asha #28 6 years ago

    Didn't Wrestling Kingdom have the same problem when it launched for the 360 in japan?

  • Beano #29 6 years ago

    "So that's CoD2 and DOA4 now. Wonder if this might be down to the 360 storage rather than the games themselves... "

    Or something like that - it may be a bug or flaw in the SDK or something that's easy for developers to overlook or hard to test for when developing games. The exact same workaroung procedure indicates that the bugs are originating from the same place IMO.

    Let's hope MS's test-procedures for future games are improved so this type of bug is avoided.

  • Nige #30 6 years ago

    "So, the list of Xbox 360 games with bugs:

    Call of Duty (not sure what the bug is on this one)
    DOA 4
    Project Gotham (Locks up if you try and send a message after a race)
    Ridge Racer 6 (stutters on online races if you connect to a PC to play music etc) "

    Every game has bugs, I've known titles ship with WHACKING great problems that nobody ever reported once they shipped. You're being very naive if you think that every publisher/dev has a 0 fault tolerance. It doesn't happen. Sooner or later you have to start balancing the cost of your development against your profit as it starts to ebb away. The key is getting the balance right between quality, and timeliness. And when people get that wrong, that's when patches get used. It stands to reason if a team has 20 testers working on a product, and it ships to 350,000 people - those customers are going to find stuff that the team missed. That's unfortunate, but how you deal with those customers can make a difference between a happy punter, and a miserable one (or a troll who doesn't actually own the product, but rejoices in hearing of the misfortune of others).

    "Maybe there is a "no patch" policy"
    Again, treading carefully here - but that's obviously not the case is it? Games are being patched, we've seen this already. But what tends not to happen on the Xbox is the PC model of "Version 1.01" available on day of release, followed by 1.02, 1.03 etc. etc.

    Let's not forget that we are in new territory here; new tools, new platform, and a very complex set of requirements for how each are used. I have 3 Xbox 360 games personally, and I've only experienced a bug in 1 of them... and I KNOW that one is being fixed. I have no complaints, but if you do, don't underestimate the importance of reporting them to the proper authorities. Inundating a customer service department is a great way of making directors sit up and take notice.

  • Eighthours #31 6 years ago

    Seems there's some kind of general profiles issue with the 360, in that switching profiles (or sometimes just loading the first one) when a game's on is causing this bug in both COD2 and DOA4.

    Sounds like it's not just an individual game patch that's required, but an update to the operating system itself.

  • Furbs #32 6 years ago

    Surely if its an "OS" issue it would affect every game though? Maybe its devs not getting to grips with the required code?

    /waits for an official MS game to have the same issue before changing his mind.

  • Darren #33 6 years ago

    So Tecmo delayed DOA 4's launch so that they wouldn't have to patch the game (they've admitted publicly that they hate having to bug fix games) and now the game is out and it has a bug... that requires patching!!! Oh the irony!!! /lol/
    Edited by 1 at 12/01/06 @ 09:57

  • Xerx3s #34 6 years ago

    "I've seen in a beat em up in quite a while, certainly better than anything you're likely to see on the B$2. "

    "Another MS-fanboy to the rescue :) "

    "Surely there arent enough decent games for there to be fanboys already? "

    Cue zenboys. your unbased oppinion != fact. Could it be that there are ppl who actually enjoy playing their games? Surely not!

    /goes back to playing civ4

  • Beano #35 6 years ago

    "So, the list of Xbox 360 games with bugs:"

    Be sure to add "Hardwood Hearts" (and Spades as far as I know) which is virtually unplayable on Live.
    Also the Wrestiling game which is out in Japan.

    Yes, most games have bugs and glitches, but erased savegames and constant freezes are quite critical IMO!

  • Furbs #36 6 years ago

    Jeez, Japanese coders are t3h suck :p

    /runs

  • JonFE #37 6 years ago

    "Maybe its devs not getting to grips with the required code?"

    Agreed...

  • old_skool #38 6 years ago

    Erm , maybe its just Windows ?

    /runs

  • chris26 #39 6 years ago

    I've read in many places now about the bug not happening if you allow your profile to boot up first. i can confirm this is rubbish as I always do this (why would people leave they're games in the machine when it's off!, it's bad for them!) and I still had to take back two copies because of the data bug. In the end I swapped it for King Kong.