Everyone is talking about Capcom's newest 3DS release, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D. Wow, it must be really good, huh? Not many 3DS games have been getting any amount of buzz. Unfortunately, this buzz isn't good at all.
It was revealed very close to release (maybe even after it came out) that the game only offered one save slot. Okay, that isn't so bad. Games like Pokemon do it (albeit still at an annoyance). The main grievance that consumers are having is that the game's save file CANNOT be reset. This essentially means that any progress made in the game can never be erased and will make any copy of the game that has been played an obviously used copy.
People are really up in arms about this, arguing that their purchase of a game entitles them to do whatever they like with it. Capcom argues that this is to prevent people from selling the game to retailers like Gamestop or Amazon and "encouraging" buyers to keep the game instead. Of course, this means that owners of Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D can't even lend the game to a friend, unless that friend just wants to mess around with it.
While I can understand some of the hate, this isn't really all bad. The game seems to be built around replayability (from what I've seen), having stages where the only goal is to try for the high score again and again. Sure, if someone has unlocked everything in the game, the next person would only get to play a file with everything on it, but is that really so bad?
Reports are surfacing that some Gamestops aren't even taking used copies of the game, since the replay value is so low. Game rental service Gamefly also revealed that they aren't even renting the game out to customers, which I can understand. Why rent a game that would be in various states of completion?
The main issue people seem to be having with this whole debacle is that they are very limited with what they can do afterwards. So many gamers out there finish a game and immediately sell it to a friend or at a Gamestop and that isn't really an option now. I ask you is this really such a bad thing? Sure, I've sold my fair share of games to Gamestop but it pains me every time. I dream of having a massive game collection, one I've built up over the years. It is always the promise of a shiny new game that tempts me from this. Is a game that I can't sell back (kinda like a PC game really) really so bad?
The bigger problem could be if more and more companies start this trend. Being that the 3DS (and DS) are the only cartridge based systems, this is the only set of games it could affect but that is still a rather large group. Some people are arguing that this will just lead to more and more systems put in place like this one, more encroachment on the freedoms of gamers. While that may happen, I really can't fault company for trying to slow the tide of used games sales; seeing how much money a company can lose to them really makes me understand why they try these radical new ideas (Ubisoft's always-connected DRM for PC comes to mind). For now, we just have to watch and wait for the continued reaction to this news.
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