With Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D now available in stores, some disturbing facts about the game cartridge are coming to light. It seems that Capcom has rigged the game with a feature they call “Forever Saves.” A “Forever Save” cannot be erased or reset and will remain with the game permanently. It’s also causing some problems for game retailer GameStop and rental-by-mail company Gamefly.
Gamefly has confirmed they will not be offering Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D for rent. Meanwhile, GameStop managers have begun to inform gamers that they will not accept the game as a trade-in. However, they will continue to sell new copies of the title (insert “Oh, the irony!” comment here).
A Capcom representative told Destructoid that the “Forever Saves” were not implemented to deter used sales, but he didn’t really have an explanation for why the feature was included:
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.
Something tells me the “Forever Save” is an experiment that won’t be repeated.
