Capcom Fights Used Game Sales With Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D Saved Games

[Epona]

So wait, it's a bad thing to buy games used?

When you buy the game used, the developer and publisher doesn't see any of that money. They only make money when the game is purchased new. Only the game retailer (gamestop) benefits, when games are resold.

Thus, game makers aren't too happy about used game sales.

Happy about it or not, it's legal just like used sales of anything else. They aren't entitled to money from used sales and I wonder how legal it is to try and stop used sales in this way. I mean, trying to convince consumers not to buy used is fine but then boobytrapping a product to discourage used sales may be crossing the line.

Then again, they have done it with PC games via online activation and single use product keys.

 

[Strain42]

Hey Capcom USA, I have a better idea.

Get off your duffs and high horses and release Ace Attorney Investigations 2

...please.

 

[Luke5515]

Well, raise the Jolly Rodger, and piracy ahoy.
As long as they don't try this with something with a real story, we should be fine.

 

[Olrod]

So... their solution to Used games is to deliberately destroy any notion of replayability and essentially make them disposable cartridges?

Yeah, just No.

 

[BabyRaptor]

Wait.... what? They are serious? That had got to be the most ridiculous DRM-type-thing I have ever seen.

What happens if you want to replay the game from the start after you finish it?

You have to buy another copy. It means more money for them, so what do they care?

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Yeah, Mercenaries isn't a campaign... buying it used would be like buying a level 40 WoW account or something.

I do think it's kind of a strange way to prevent piracy, but I don't know how well this would work. I mean, yeah I don't know why you would want to delete your information but you're basically going to be pissing a lot of people off. I mean, there will be people buying the game used who don't know that you can't delete it and will end up having to play on someone else's account.

I understand that they hate used sales and it's completely justified. I would too if I were them. But the problem is you're punishing people who probably don't deserve to be punished. Used games are just the same as selling anything else used and as much as I hate to say it that's just a part of business. And besides, there are a ton of games I've bought used and then bought another game buy the same developer new because I liked the used one so much.

 

[Con Carne]

It won't be long before someone like Geohotz finds a way to delete saves while keeping the rest of the game in tact.

 

[theultimateend]

Who cares? After RE4 why even buy another RE game (I really hated RE5 if you were curious).

 

[katsabas]

Figures. First I cannot copy my SFIV data so I must unlock Akuma all over again every time I change my hard drive on the PS3 and now this.

Then again, isn't this the mercs mode from 5? What's there to save except scores? They have been really hitting the stupid juice recently.

Sterling did a video about this on youtube. Pretty much sums the whole sales games thing up.

 

[Beautiful End]

Isn't Steeldiver the same? You cannot start a brand new game because there's no way to erase old files? Except, you know, RE is actually a better game. But I mean, that's a great idea, Capcom! Because Steeldiver clearly became a worldwide phenomenon after this!

Fuck the 3DS and its new gimmicky feature. What's so wrong about buying used games? *Gasp* God forbid people get to buy their game...CHEAPER!
I know they don't get a full profit off used games (Although they have to pay them anyway. Or do you think games just hatch inside Gamestop?), but come on! Cut people some slack! If a brand new game is 60 bucks and a used copy is 30, you bet your ass I'll go after the used copy. As heartless as it sounds, people don't give a crap about who profits over that sale; they just want that one cheap game and they want it now.

Okay, this is I personally got into used games as of lately:
-If the game sucks, I can return it within 7 days for a full refund.
-It's cheaper.
-More variety.
-Sometimes its the only way you'll find a good. unique game, like my Orange Box.

With new games, if the game sucks, then it sucks. Like DC Universe; people can't sell it even though it sucks. And those of us who are curious about it are not willing to spend 30-40 dollars for a game that we know is bound to suck, even though we might wanna try it out first.

Working at Gamestop, I usually suggest people to buy a used copy and try the game out. And then if they like it, I encourage them to come back, return the game and buy a new copy if they want. So sorry, Capcom, but you just lost huge sales with that dick move you pulled. If the game is now jaw-dropping good, people just won't bother buying the game.

Off topic: I don't see what's so bad about selling second hand games. It's like if people hated on a guy selling his clothes at the flea market. What's so bad about it? The guy wants to sell his stuff; it's up to you to buy, or not, his crappy clothes. No one is forcing you to choose. So why not leave the guy alone? He's not doing anything wrong.
[/end off topic rant]

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Credit where it's due: This is the most unique way I've ever heard of in attempts to stop piracy/used game. Not the most effective one (I think Project 10 dollars is), but original to say the least.

 

[theskadudeguy]

In most Resi games once you've played through once you can play through again on any difficulty. Is this one going to be that different?

Resi 3D is (obviously) on the 3DS which is notoriously easy to pirate. We used to have poeple come into whee I work all the time and ask for R4 cards and it was always dad's who thought they were clever. My response was always "sir, we don't sell those. If we did we wouldn't sell any real games." When they then looked dumbfounded.

 

[weirdee]

Now, see, the irony of this situation is that instead of used game sales depriving them of market share, it'll be people who won't want to pay for a game they can't sell back.

The drop in 3DS reputation...

And perhaps making Nintendo even more wary of third party developers.

Also, increasing Capcom on the priority list for angry hackers.

Which, in turn, may possibly cause more delays for Megaman Legends 3.

Triggering a further decrease in 3DS reputation.

Overall, the kind of situation that raises my ire to "baby punch" levels.

 

[Doclector]

Capcom aren't bad people, they're just Moro-oh, wait.

This is not the kind of dick move I expect from capcom. They tend to be rather good to their customers, aside from releasing hundreds of versions of each street fighter game.

 

[Trogdor1138]

This is a complete cluster fuck even for Capcom standards (which are pretty damn bad).

Want to get better sales? Make the game good then.

What happens if I want to restart my game, lend it to a friend etc.?

"Fuck you then" is what.

 

[Something Amyss]

So wait, it's a bad thing to buy games used?

Buying used is stealing.

At least, that's the new logic that's been circulating for a couple of years.

It's not even exclusive to gaming; the first time I heard about it was a record exec speaking to congress about piracy, and he likened used CD stores to piracy/theft. That was over five years ago.

It has since filtered down to game industry apologists.

What amazes me is that they think this might stop people. The guy at Gamestop tried to sell me on a used version of Pokémon White (Yes, I'm an adult who plays Pokémon) by pointing out someone else had done the work already. Which kind of defeats the purpose of any game for me, but I remember the old days of save file copying before profiles and accounts became the thing. Hell, it was a bonus of switching to memory cards instead of in-cart storage.

Well, to some.

 

[mogamer]

You know what publishers COULD do to make money off of used sales? Sell them themselves. There is nothing stopping the publishers from offering money back on your used games, and then selling them themselves. But they would rather moan about GameStop being evil.

But that would require publishers to spend money on creating a trade-in system. It's a lot easier and cheaper for publishers to blame their problems on Game Stop .

 

[Orekoya]

So what about down the road when they're no longer producing the game, and the only available copies will be used copies?

That's just driving away future customers.

Let's just establish something really quick since this point is getting brought up alot.

When anyone buys used, they are NOT Capcom's customer. At all. They are the retailer's customer. 0 of those dollars went to Capcom. Most publishers don't give a crap whether or not people get to play their old catalog of games when they make 0 dollars from it either way.