PSA: Monster Hunter Generations Save Data Caveat

[The DanMan]

I was looking through the online manual Capcom released a few weeks ago, and I found something very interesting/disturbing.

There are major caveats concerning save data for this game: http://game.capcom.com/manual/MH_Gen/en/contents1.html
"Performing the following actions will cause the game to become temporarily unplayable.
-Inserting the game into a different system and attempting to play
-Switching out the SD card with one that doesn't have extra data created by the system"

What's more...
"Performing the following actions will cause the game to become unplayable.
-Formatting the SD card
-Deleting the extra data from the SD card
-Selecting Format Save Data from the options menu"

So, yeah. Most likely done to shut down the rampant save hackers, but the used market for this game has been killed along with it. Can you imagine somebody buying the game, only to be unable to play it because somebody returned it after firing it up? The only way to make it playable there would be a complete system data transfer.
Screw you too, hackers. Screw you too.

The takeaways are obvious: do not buy this game unless it's factory sealed/digital, as you run a very real risk of the game being unplayable. In addition, if you buy it physically and wish to sell it later, you can't (or that is, really shouldn't).

I'm shocked I haven't seen this talked about more; I saw a single mention on the subreddit and that's it.

[VincentASM]

I was expecting something slightly inconvenient, but WHOA, I was not prepared for that.

Ironically, I wonder if you can get around the caveats using Homebrew or CFW...

[Captain Karnage]

that sucks, Capcom's cool 1 miniute, next miniute they're back to themselves in 2011/2012

maybe they might have a wipe all data somewhere

[Samias]

I hope this is just badly translated/communicated and they mean your current save file becomes unplayable if your save data on the SD card doesn't match the system ID it was created from (like most 3DS games), but you can create new saves instead and the cart doesn't store your saves without an SD card. Especially since it says your game becomes unplayable when you select format save data in the menu. But if the game formats itself to only play on 1 3DS... dick move...

[The DanMan]

that sucks, Capcom's cool 1 miniute, next miniute they're back to themselves in 2011/2012

maybe they might have a wipe all data somewhere

I hope this is just badly translated/communicated and they mean your current save file becomes unplayable if your save data on the SD card doesn't match the system ID it was created from (like most 3DS games), but you can create new saves instead and the cart doesn't store your saves without an SD card. Especially since it says your game becomes unplayable when you select format save data in the menu. But if the game formats itself to only play on 1 3DS... dick move...

While extreme, considering the massive amounts of hacking that went on in 4U it's not entirely unwarranted.

I heard nothing about this on the Japanese side of things, so maybe it isn't as big of a deal as it seems.

[LuxSpes]

While extreme, considering the massive amounts of hacking that went on in 4U it's not entirely unwarranted.

I heard nothing about this on the Japanese side of things, so maybe it isn't as big of a deal as it seems.

I think it's kind of a bad move to make a change that's potentially a pain for every player of your game just to deal with people that caused problems for some players. Never was a fan of penalizing the entire group for the actions of a few.

[Zera]

I don't know how a physical game can lock itself to one 3DS, but I'd much rather boycott it if that's the case.

[The DanMan]

I don't know how a physical game can lock itself to one 3DS, but I'd much rather boycott it if that's the case.

The confounding thing is, nobody has said anything about this on the Japanese or English sides. I feel like there's something missing here.

[Samias]

If no one has said anything about it, I'd chalk this up to a miscommunication. I think it's just trying to say you can't use someone else's saves on one SD card on your game card unless you wipe everything. Which is what 4U did already I think.

The tell should be the "-Selecting Format Save Data from the options menu" making the game unplayable. As in, it makes all files unplayable as you've deleted them all. I doubt they'd just give you the option to brick a game cart.