Capcom’s new feature for the 3DS’ Resident Evil: The Mercenaries seems to be bad news for used video game sellers and nostalgia hunters of the future. The Resident Evil game does not allow you to reset save data once you’ve finished, a feature confirmed via understated print in the game’s manual. The game supports only one save file forever.
Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D is a third-person shooter that lets you play as characters from Resident Evil 4 and 5 and is a combination of mini-games. It’s an arcade-style score attack game so the permanent save data isn’t as tragic a feature as it would be for a campaign style game. Also, the cart save doesn’t seem to happen with auto-save off.
As a score attack game what you get to unlock seems to be fundamental to the value, at least in single-player mode. Buying used, borrowing, or even replaying this game will now be sort of like buying a used tissue, or wearing stretched-out clothing.
Game publishers don’t make any money off of used video game sales by companies like Gamestop, so it’s been speculated that Capcom is doing this on purpose to crack down on those sales. Gamestop and other companies make a good chunk of their money from buying and selling back used games, so it would be disastrous if this becomes a trend. Japanese shops are reportedly paying very low prices for the game used. Even though it’s only been a month since the game’s release, used prices over there are as low as $6.
However, according to Eurogamer, Capcom says that the video game will retain it’s value. A Capcom spokesperson said, “The game’s value at second-hand in the UK is not affected by whether or not the game can have its data reset. “Customers in the UK will not experience a reduced second-hand value should they wish to trade in their purchase.”
