14 DAY TRIAL // Capcom has launched Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D for the Nintendo 3DS handheld recently, but the company failed to make potential purchasers aware of the fact that there is no way of deleting save game data that the game creates.
Those who get the new game will be able to save their progress, but there's no way to go back and delete it in order to start from scratch and those who get a used copy of the game will also rely on the gameplay of other players for their progress.
Capcom has not offered an official reason for the save-game permanence, but says it's aim was not to eliminate the second-hand market for Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D.
Brian Kletner, an executive at Capcom, told Destructoid that, “In Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, all mission progress is saved directly to the Nintendo 3DS cartridge, where it cannot be reset. The nature of the game invites high levels of replayability in order to improve mission scores.”
He added, “In addition, this feature does not remove any content available for users. 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.”
Retail chains have reacted to the Capcom move and GameFly has announced that Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D is not a rentable game while a number of GameStop stores have already announced that they would not buy the used game from players.
Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D is based around a game mode from console-bound titles in the series, with players able to pick a character and battle enemies in a number of game modes.
It will be interesting to see whether future Capcom releases will also implement the concept of save data that cannot be deleted.