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| Resident Evil Mercenaries 3D: The game you can only play once in full... |
This may not seem like much of a problem until you consider that players may not be able to trade in their copy of the game as the old save data is completely undeletable, and that the game itself can only be played through once and cannot be reset back to its original state, meaning that all unlocked items, highscores, missions and weapons remain completed and cannot be rediscovered or unlocked once the game is completed.
This means that anyone wishing to start the game over from scratch is out of luck. It also means that anyone who purchased a used copy of this game will get diminished gameplay because they will not be able to start the game from its original unplayed state.
The news comes after details of the game's instruction manual became available on several gaming websites such as Tiny Cartridge, amongst others. The screenshot below clearly shows a warning at the bottom of the page, which reads: "Note: Saved data on this software cannot be reset."
The game is undergoing an international release starting this week with Japan and Australia. However, the countries are taking different steps in the wake of the one-save-only news becoming public.
For example, in Japan, gamers are being offered the game at a very low price because of the game's low resale value, whilst (according to Australian Website, Vooks,) EB Games, a popular Australian game retailer, is banning the game from their shelves as they claim that the one-save/perma-save feature will make the game less appealing to gamers in the future.
The game was released yesterday in Australia, but is now embroiled in controversy before it has even hit the shelves, which is likely to affect Capcom's sale figures.
It is very unclear why Capcom would deliberately release a game which can only ever be played through in its entirety once, although some websites are already speculating that this move was intended to slow down second-hand sales of the game.
However, In a recent statement issued to gaming website Giantbomb, Capcom insisted that it did not take the used-game market into account when choosing the one-save feature for the game.
According to Capcom: "Secondhand game sales were not a factor in this development decision, so we hope that all our consumers will be able to enjoy the entirety of the survival-action experiences that the game does offer." [Sourced from: http://www.giantbomb.com/news/capcom-used-games-not-a-factor-in-resident-evil-the-mercenaries-3d-lacking-data-reset/3430/]
It has to be argued however that Capcom might have proverbially shot themselves in the foot with this decision. The used-game market now accounts for a large proportion of all videogame sales, how is a game which can only be played in its original state one time going to survive against a mass of games which are available for second-hand trade?
The news is likely to anger the gaming community and have a negative impact on any future sales of the game.
Let's just hope that other videogame producers don't all decide to follow Capcom's example or else the thriving videogames market that we have today is unlikely to be around for much longer...
So, what do you think, is a game that you can only fully play once and may not be able to trade-in or swap with friends really worth owning?
Let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment in our 'Comments Box' today.
STORY UPDATE: Capcom explains the perma-save/one save only feature: http://worldofminigamers.blogspot.com/2011/06/resident-evil-mercenaries-one-save.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MiniGamers+%28Mini+Gamers%29
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