"Amazon Bombing" has become a popular way for disgruntled consumers to make their complaints heard, and Capcom has become the latest to suffer the indignity. Infuriated by the publisher's mysterious decision to block users from deleting their save data inResident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, gamers have bombarded Amazon with negative reviews.
"I have nothing more to add that this is crippleware whose sole purpose is to erode owner rights even further," wrote one reviewer.
"I don't care how much fun this game is, or how good it looks, or how much it costs," said another. "There is one save slot. Save data is permanent and cannot be deleted. Capcom is attempting to set a new precedent in consumer manipulation and control with this product."
As I said earlier, I'm choosing to respectfully reverse my decision to buy the game due to the potential implications of this move. While Capcom insists that this move isn't about used games, it's refused to clarify what it IS about. Gamers, it seems, have decided for them in lieu of an explanation.
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Can someone explain to me the details of this whole thing? Like, can you only play through the game once?
Cause if you can play through it multiple times and the only thing you can't change is the name on the save file or whatever, then I don't get what the big deal is.
This is crippling both to used gamers AND original owners. I have a habit of deleting save data if I haven't touched a game in a while. I think I will write a negative review myself. Thanks for getting this out there Jim.
@king kong five:
You unlock more content as you play, along with "medals" and power-ups.
So all the crying kids are mad that if they pick up a used copy, they won't get the same experience as new buyers. Anything the previous player unlocked would be accessible. So theoretically, the previous owner could have unlocked everything in the game leaving no "rewards" to unlock for the used buyer.
I don't even understand why people are crying about not being able to pick up a used copy and play from the beginning. Why does anyone buy used when amazon sells games with ridiculous sales all the time? And with the wealth of gift cards given out for buying things these days, how do you not have money off from one of those?
But no, boo hoo, time to be a bunch of babies. Whatever.
@king kong five:
And in case I didn't make it clear, all of the same content would be playable to a used player as a new player. The used player just might get a copy where somebody already beat all the missions on SS.
Normally I would advocate against this means of voicing displeasure but since in this case the problem is one that relates to the disgruntled as consumers and stems directly from the product, hell yeah.
Man, companies have been total dicks about this kinda stuff lately. I'm sick of it to be honest. Input this code here, that user name there, region lock this, make that unsellable. I just want to play games without hassle. Voting with my dollars is too ineffective (as evidenced by the success of MW2 despite it not having dedicated servers on PC).
Hey everybody, just because this issue doesn't directly and immediately effect EggmaniMN, we should completely disregard it and any and all future rammifications a precedent like this could set on the industry and video game economy, both foreseeable and not.
We're talking about a company that used the same stupid DRM on Final Fight and Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 on PSN. You have to be on to play it. Imagine my surprise when I wanted to rock the Haggar on April.
They clearly don't give a fuck anymore. Keiji Inafune was right, it's a sinking ship.
@samson You might want to delete it if you bought it used and wanted to earn everything for yourself, instead of already having it all unlocked by the last person who played
Having content fully unlocked really ISN'T that big of a deal. Are gamers' self-esteem so low they need a virtual pat on the back for doing fuck all? Just don't use late-game stuff if you don't want to. Do you simply award yourself all the Monopoly money because it's in the box and you have no self control? No, of course you don't. What's next? you demand CDs lock out tracks unless they're listened to in sequential order?
I get it. This is kind of dumb and anti-consumer, but the net effect is almost zero and there are definitely ways around it, if inelegant. I feel like gamers are way too knee-jerk and get incensed over every little thing. When it comes time to be TRULY angry, how are publishers supposed to know that they've honestly fucked up, or if you're just being kind of reactionary and bratty again? If EVERYTHING pisses you off, no one can filter through it. It's just a bunch noise.
This is Amazon-bombing done right. It's not tangentially-related attacks on a product because of that product's link to something else; it's negatively reviewing a product en masse because of an undesirable feature in the product itself. Hopefully it won't get written off as a dumb internet stunt, because this is kind of crap (especially if the trend catches on).
It doesn't matter why the player would want to delete the file. The fact that it's been industry standard for years is proof that it should have been included. There's literally no other reason for this other than to hinder the experience of the player. It's too much money-grubbing bullshit, even for Capcom, the company with by far the worst treatment of the player.
It's ridiculous. This is on the same level as DRM and online pass. The actual effects aren't as inconvenient for many, but the implications are far worse for all.
Starting over for some people from the beginning of a game after taking a break for a year+ is always more fun than loading up an end-game save. I really hope Capcom starts thinking about their decisions of punishing loyal consumers as of late.
I'm also totally down to buy a few copies of this on sale and stash them to sell at a later date of 20 years time. "brand new unplayed Mercs 3D $399.99" ahh can't wait to make that money
Oh who the hell cares!!! There is no story to reset, it's just an expanded shooting mode. And for those wanting to buy used, get a job and buy it new. People are so rectally retentive.
I'm not sure if 3DS games are being pirated yet, but I know that circumventing games with one save file was one advantage of pirating DS games.
I share a DS with my brother, and more than a couple times pirated a game despite owning it because the single save-file was already being used by him.
It's truly sad that pirated versions of some content offer clear advantages - no DRM in games, never unskippable trailers or adverts with movies, higher quality digital recording for music, etc..
"As I said earlier, I'm choosing to respectfully reverse my decision to buy the game due to the potential implications of this move. While Capcom insists that this move isn't about used games, it's refused to clarify what it IS about. Gamers, it seems, have decided for them in lieu of an explanation."
So you enjoy being raped if someone speaks loudly against it? I don't think I understand your reasoning, Sir Jim.
this makes me smile. Hopefully capcom loses at least a few sales over this. That's how the market works, I just hope more people would pay attention/give a crap, because this isn't the first time Capcom has made some douchy decisions
Ugh, seriously. How is anyone defending Capcom or saying this doesnt matter? These are the things that matter in gaming, dammit. If it wasn't for this complacent "who cares as long as I get my gaming fix" attitude, we might not be in the situation we are today.
It's just ignorant. Consumers come first, always. Gamers come first, over developers, over publishers, over hardware makers. WE are the most important aspect of gaming, stop acting like we owe anyone anything. Fucking bubblegummers, go back to doing whatever you were doing before Halo got you into gaming when you were 17.
Capcom announced that SSFIV AE for PC would have brutal, crippling DRM, then announced they'd remove it after nerdrage hit their forums. Wonder if they'll do the same.
okay, so when are you going to actually start caring. After on disk dlc, preorder dlc, day 1 dlc, dlc only obtained after liking them on facebook/1 million people watching a trailer/downloading a demo obtrusive DRM, charging for costumes, charging for multiplayer, charging for hard mode, etc. game companies have done a lot of douchey things this generation, yet there are always people who come and for some reason defend the game companies and insult people who do care. Why the hell would anyone do that? (and please don't say it's because we should be trying to achieve world peace, because your insults don't help those matter either)
What the hell is it going to take before a game company does something and there are no corporate sympathizers to back them up?
This deserves to be taken seriously, you fucking idiot. If this becomes standard, not only are they affecting the used market, they are affecting a product within a single household. What about siblings who share? What about boyfriends/girlfriends that do the exact same thing? What if your friends wants to borrow it? What if you want to replay it again?
God forbid someone bought this used and liked it. They might want to buy RE: Revelations new when it comes out! Man, Capcom doesn't want any of that!
The only thing they are effectively doing is making people want to pirate... and fuck, pirating might suck, but if companies want to be assholes, well, I guess we can too.
I'm actually going to make a point to only buy future Capcom releases "used" because of this stunt. I don't care how much I want them. They can 1) Address it and fix it, or 2) fuck off.
Still buying it. Fuck it. The no data reset feature sucks, but I have no real principles on anything regarding the game industry. I just want to play a fun game. Thank God for Glyde and the $50 in my glyde account.
I think you can easily delete the save though if it works like most cartridge games do. You just remove the game while it is saving, it corrupts the save file and creates a new one altogether.
I don't understand how the save data is permanent. If you moved to a new 3DS, wouldn't you HAVE to make new save files? Or is the data stored on the disk, or cartridge, or whatever the hell it is? Because that's not how discs work.
It blows my mind -- almost literally -- how many people don't see how big of a deal this actually is. I believe the term for them is "sheep," if I remember correctly -- Blindly following whatever the higher-ups on the food chain say, not matter how ridiculous and crippling the rules become.
Don't worry, folks - it won't be long before every game will be like this.
Imagine having to pay full price for a game, WITHOUT the option to trade or sell it to recoup the cost of buying another new game.
Part of me thinks "Who cares? It's an arcade shooter anyway. Narrative and level order isn't that important.", but the other part knows that this is only the beginning.
@pedrovay2003 Or maybe they don't plan on selling it? I don't see it as a big deal since it is not a story driven game and since no personal data is stored on it. Yes, it can be annoying if you like the idea of restarting with noting similar to the prestige system in CoD, but it isn't the end of the world. The biggest problem with the game is that it is $40 and takes an hour and a half to beat.
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Contest:
8:30 PM on 06.28.2011 | 
Hours of nerd rage wasted.
Cause if you can play through it multiple times and the only thing you can't change is the name on the save file or whatever, then I don't get what the big deal is.
But the save data is stored on the game card, not on the DS itself. Why would you want to delete it?
Like I said, unless the game only lets you play through it once (which I seriously doubt) then I don't get the issue here.
You unlock more content as you play, along with "medals" and power-ups.
So all the crying kids are mad that if they pick up a used copy, they won't get the same experience as new buyers. Anything the previous player unlocked would be accessible. So theoretically, the previous owner could have unlocked everything in the game leaving no "rewards" to unlock for the used buyer.
I don't even understand why people are crying about not being able to pick up a used copy and play from the beginning. Why does anyone buy used when amazon sells games with ridiculous sales all the time? And with the wealth of gift cards given out for buying things these days, how do you not have money off from one of those?
But no, boo hoo, time to be a bunch of babies. Whatever.
And in case I didn't make it clear, all of the same content would be playable to a used player as a new player. The used player just might get a copy where somebody already beat all the missions on SS.
Thanks for the info. Now I get what the fuss is about, and yeah, that's fucked up.
Even outside of its trade-in value, sometimes I just want to start a game fresh again and unlock everything from scratch.
Congrats on making user reviews even more useless
They clearly don't give a fuck anymore. Keiji Inafune was right, it's a sinking ship.
It's more for used game sales and there are some gamers out there that do reset their save files
DRM is bad enough on PCs. Don't bring that bullshit to consoles.
I get it. This is kind of dumb and anti-consumer, but the net effect is almost zero and there are definitely ways around it, if inelegant. I feel like gamers are way too knee-jerk and get incensed over every little thing. When it comes time to be TRULY angry, how are publishers supposed to know that they've honestly fucked up, or if you're just being kind of reactionary and bratty again? If EVERYTHING pisses you off, no one can filter through it. It's just a bunch noise.
You don't think people should complain when something we've always had gets taken away? They had to go out of their way to make this possible.
I don't see why people have a problem when we make our voices heard.
It's ridiculous. This is on the same level as DRM and online pass. The actual effects aren't as inconvenient for many, but the implications are far worse for all.
Calm down there, you're making too many valid points. We need more outrage and analogies!
I'm also totally down to buy a few copies of this on sale and stash them to sell at a later date of 20 years time. "brand new unplayed Mercs 3D $399.99" ahh can't wait to make that money
I share a DS with my brother, and more than a couple times pirated a game despite owning it because the single save-file was already being used by him.
It's truly sad that pirated versions of some content offer clear advantages - no DRM in games, never unskippable trailers or adverts with movies, higher quality digital recording for music, etc..
That's funny coming from someone like you.
So you enjoy being raped if someone speaks loudly against it? I don't think I understand your reasoning, Sir Jim.
It's just ignorant. Consumers come first, always. Gamers come first, over developers, over publishers, over hardware makers. WE are the most important aspect of gaming, stop acting like we owe anyone anything. Fucking bubblegummers, go back to doing whatever you were doing before Halo got you into gaming when you were 17.
okay, so when are you going to actually start caring. After on disk dlc, preorder dlc, day 1 dlc, dlc only obtained after liking them on facebook/1 million people watching a trailer/downloading a demo obtrusive DRM, charging for costumes, charging for multiplayer, charging for hard mode, etc. game companies have done a lot of douchey things this generation, yet there are always people who come and for some reason defend the game companies and insult people who do care. Why the hell would anyone do that? (and please don't say it's because we should be trying to achieve world peace, because your insults don't help those matter either)
What the hell is it going to take before a game company does something and there are no corporate sympathizers to back them up?
Let me respond in your language.
This deserves to be taken seriously, you fucking idiot. If this becomes standard, not only are they affecting the used market, they are affecting a product within a single household. What about siblings who share? What about boyfriends/girlfriends that do the exact same thing? What if your friends wants to borrow it? What if you want to replay it again?
God forbid someone bought this used and liked it. They might want to buy RE: Revelations new when it comes out! Man, Capcom doesn't want any of that!
The only thing they are effectively doing is making people want to pirate... and fuck, pirating might suck, but if companies want to be assholes, well, I guess we can too.
I'm actually going to make a point to only buy future Capcom releases "used" because of this stunt. I don't care how much I want them. They can 1) Address it and fix it, or 2) fuck off.
Imagine having to pay full price for a game, WITHOUT the option to trade or sell it to recoup the cost of buying another new game.
Part of me thinks "Who cares? It's an arcade shooter anyway. Narrative and level order isn't that important.", but the other part knows that this is only the beginning.