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Capcom Announces Unreplayable Game
Hatta writes "Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D for the Nintendo 3DS will be an experience that can be completed once per customer. Using a single, unwipable save slot Capcom ensures that a second hand customer gets a second rate experience. If you buy this game used, you will be stuck with the previous owner's progress, unable to start the game fresh."
That would be William Gibson's _Agrippa_ a memoir of his father:
http://www.dissemination.dk/research/books/postcard-from-a-dead-future/
It contained aquatint etchings which would degrade when exposed to light and a _floppy disk_ w/ the text which would encrypt itself as it was displayed (naturally this has since been broken).
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
The game has already been out for a month. It was not published clearly on the outside of the box, just in the manual (and who RTFM around here?).
They're treating it as a success at capcom because Gamestop is paying 6$ for it used in the UK and in Japan.
Source.
I can't speak for all games, but I am very familiar with the save structure of one particular series, and each game in this series stores a backup of the save file and will always revert if one of them is corrupt. I would guess that this is not the only series where the developers take this approach.
A more nuanced description of the save game system is here:
http://gamasutra.com/view/news/35476/Capcom_Used_Sales_Not_A_Factor_In_The_Mercenaries_Save_System.php
Just keep in mind this isn't an RPG, where saved data prevents you from seeing the beginning. This is a shooter game where your high scores and unlocks are permanently saved to the card. I suppose it's sad that you can't restore everything back to its original locked state and get the pleasure of unlocking each item individually, but I doubt it's as bad as everyone fears.
One important thing missing from the summary:
This is an arcade game were the save file only keeps high scores and unlocked content, similar to unlocking characters in a Street Fighter game.
Although some may prefer to unlock everything themselves, I can also see many would love to buy a used and fully u locked copy of the game over a new one.
This instance of the feature does not deserve any real doom crying.
What part of Resident Evil sounds like a game that children should play?
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.