How Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D Broke Gamefly, Buyer Experience
by Carlos Macias, posted on 28 June 2011 / 2,893 Views
As I sat down to write this column yesterday, the original headline that ran through my head was something along the lines of "You're Out of Luck, Used-Game Buyer, I Already Beat Resident Evil For You." The game in question, of course, is Capcom's new 3DS title, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D. A game that is meant to put the "Mercenaries" time trial mode of previous Resident Evil titles in the spotlight.
It's a relatively low-profile release of a bonus mode expanded into a full-priced game and has received quite a few favorable reviews so far. Unfortunately, its strengths and weaknesses are getting overshadowed by the recent brouhaha over its restrictive save system that disables a player to reset any in-game progress.
Honestly, though? I didn't care. The reason I was going to be able to make such a bold statement as my original headline suggested was because I knew Gamefly would send me the game day one -- my save file being the first on that copy of the game. (I know how to work the online rental shop's queue system to do so, shhh). Then I remembered that I had not received a shipping confirmation email of RE: Mercenaries 3D as Gamefly is proned to do before it sends a game out. I decided to research this anomaly, went to my GameQ and was greeted with the following screen:
Yes. Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D is "not rentable." My Resident Evil: Revelations demo (with a Mercenaries game add-on, apparently) would not be reaching my front door any time soon. Investigating further, I looked through Gamefly's Q&A section (customer service via telephone and direct email is conspicuously absent from the site) and found a question answered that was last updated in August 2010:
"Why are some games on the Web site non-rentable?
Published 09/10/2008 08:15 AM | Updated 06/01/2010 11:35 AM
A game may be non-rentable for one of several reasons:
* The title may be rare or out of print, and there may be limited or no copies available for us to purchase.
*The title may be a future release and may become available to rent.
* The title may only be sold with and/or be playable with a peripheral that we cannot send to you in our mailers. In all three instances, we keep these titles on the Web site so you can still access the content that is available, even if the title is non-rentable and cannot be added to your GameQ.
Their labeling for a game that is "non-rentable" is quite clear, but I doubt it's something they anticipated like the unique case with Capcom's Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D. It certainly raises a few interesting questions and this method against used-game sales or whatever Capcom is presumably trying to combat may be worse to the consumer than the much-reviled DRM strategy on PCs. Capcom, of course, disputes the notion that RE: Mercenaries 3D's one-save function is a ploy against used-game sales:
"Secondhand game sales were not a factor in this development decision," Capcom said in a statement (via GiantBomb), "so we hope that all our consumers will be able to enjoy the entirety of the survival-action experiences that the game does offer."
Capcom's dismissal of its save system undermining used-game sales from buyer-to-Gamestop and Gamestop-to-next-buyer is one thing, but this is damning even to the original buyer who will pick up the game for a not-a-dismal price of $39.99. He can't erase game data to start over and enjoy the adventure from the scratch nor can he lend the game out to a friend without having unlocked all the extras on the cartridge already.
Now, Capcom doesn't need to placate used-game or online rental shops like GameStop and Gamefly, but it can at least look to the practical ways a legitimate buyer will use its products.
"In Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, all mission progress is saved directly to the Nintendo 3DS cartridge, where it cannot be reset," said Capcom. "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."
The company seems to pull the "it's a technical issue" card out, but cartridge-based games have been able to reset your save data since the NES first started getting game-save batteries! Whatever their true motive, Capcom's initiative with Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D has, at least, broken Gamefly's rental for that particular title and, as good news for some of you, has undercut major future profits from the "evil empire" that is GameStop.
New-game buyers? Don't worry, you're covered. Kind of.
