Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D is out today. Whether you pick up a used or new copy, you won’t ever have the opportunity to delete your save data. While this might not be an especially big deal to many (the game is an arcade-style shooter built around replaying the same levels over and over to achieve higher scores), others are upset basic functionality that’s expected to be included is not.
Some assumed this was a move to incentivize the purchase of new games. Some publishers include one-time-use codes with their games that require used game buyers to spend additional money to gain access to the online mode or other content the code grants access to. This seemed like a new and different form of that — without the ability to start from scratch, there are people out there (myself included) who would be less interested in picking up a used copy of The Mercenaries 3D knowing that the progress made would not entirely be their own. However, Capcom claims that negatively affecting the value of used games was not its goal.
Much like what was said about United Kingdom customers not losing second-hand value for their games, Brian Keltner told Destructoid, “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. 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.”
