The inability to start fresh on a copy of The Mercenaries 3D after someone has played it was a design decision that had nothing to do with second-hand game sales, Capcom tells Kotaku.
Saved data on copies of Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D is permanent. Since Nintendo 3DS games are saved directly onto the card, that means if a copy of the game is given away or sold used it will include with it all of the achievements, unlocks and scores of previous owners.
Some gamers, unhappy with the design decision, question whether the permanent save is a way to try and reduce used sales of the game. Reached for comment this morning, Capcom denied that used sales had anything to do with the design.
“In Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, all mission progress is saved directly to the Nintendo 3DS cartridge, where it cannot be reset,” a spokesman told Kotaku. “The nature of the game invites high levels of replayability in order to improve mission scores. In addition, this feature does not remove any content available for users. Second-hand 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.”
This isn’t the first time that Capcom has come up with a creative way to handle save-game data. PlayStation 3 versions of Street Figher IV and Resident Evil 5 lock save files to a console instead of the PSN ID.
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