Retailers split on Mercenaries trade-ins

Videogame retailers in the UK and elsewhere are taking markedly different stances on whether to accept trade-ins of Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, after it was revealed that save data cannot be reset on Capcom’s upcoming 3DS title.

Yesterday Capcom took the bizarre step of issuing a statement declaring that the trade-in value of its game would be unaffected by the prospect of second-hand purchasers being unable to start afresh. "Customers in the UK will not experience a reduced second-hand value should they wish to trade in their purchase," the firm told MCV. Some retailers evidently disagree.

While Game and Gamestation confirmed to Eurogamer that they will be buying and selling second-hand copies of Mercenaries 3D – the pre-owned market is an increasingly vital component of Game Group’s business, accounting for almost a quarter of its turnover last year – HMV will not. The retailer told VG247 it would not be accepting trade-ins of the game "to avoid any potential customer disappointment for those purchasing a pre-owned version."

GameStop, the US retailer, said yesterday that it would refuse trade-ins, telling Videogame Writers it was a company-wide policy to do so. However, the retailer has since changed its stance, telling IGN: "Upon further review of the [save] process with our publishing partner Capcom, [we] will resume taking trades on the game."

In Australia, Vooks reports that retailer EB Games will not even be putting the game on sale. The retailer operates a scheme which allows customers to return a game in as-new condition within seven days; the inability to reset or delete save files means the game could not be resold as new.

Capcom has since issued a further statement on the matter, and is adamant that its decision was not aimed at thwarting the second-hand market, telling Gamasutra: "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. Second-hand game sales were not a factor in this development decision."

Even if it was a conscious decision made during development, it is still a puzzling one, and one which has been met with wide dissatisfaction from the game’s potential audience. Disgruntled gamers have taken to Amazon to register their displeasure through customer reviews: at the time of writing Mercenaries 3D has an average rating of one and a half stars, with the bulk of reviewers complaining about the inability to reset save data.

With Mercenaries 3D set for release in Europe tomorrow – it hit North American shelves yesterday – it remains to be seen how its sales will be affected, but the greater damage may be to Capcom as a whole. This has been a year of puzzling decisions from the firm, with the unwelcome return of its PlayStation Network DRM and the decision to restrict offline players of Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition to less than half of the playable cast. In the latter case, Capcom changed its policy after a backlash from users; it is to be hoped that it will do the same here.