There was a mini explosion of fury over the revelation last week of the single save file in Capcom’s newest 3DS title Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D. Aside from a bit of an unwieldy title, they made the decision to make progress permanent, not allowing the save file to be reset. This turned into a debate over this being a ploy to stop used games sales and prompted companies like GameStop to take a long, hard look at if they wanted to stock the game in the first place, much less buy used copies.
Of course like anything on the internet, it got blown out of proportion by those fearing Capcom had fallen prey to the DRM gods and were now willing to sell out their loyal fans, making them waste money. Those fans were likely ignoring their copies of Street Fighter 4, Super Street Fighter 4 and Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition sitting next to them, but we won’t talk about that. The fact of the matter is that it’s not a game with an in-depth story driven campaign, and what you’re mostly getting if you buy the game after it’s been completed is like purchasing Marvel vs Capcom 3 with all the unlocks already done. I won’t mention that unlocks are an unpopular feature with some Capcom fans, as that might be cynical and cruel.
However, I do much prefer to start a game fresh and at my own pace, and the first thing I do when buying a cartridge game is to delete the save files. Clearly many others felt the same way, as during the question period of an Ask Capcom Live session, VP Christian Svensson mentioned that he might have heard the complaining. “I think it’s also fair to say that in light of the controversy it’s generated, I don’t think you’re going to see something like this happening again.
There you have it, the next 3DS game Capcom makes won’t have any saves at all, then it’ll wipe every time you turn it off and everyone will be happy. Save file wipes for everyone!
