I do hope that they devise a way to bypass the copy protected saves system. Piracy is one thing but when a company go's out of it's way to harm the honest customers who aren't cheating or pirating then they've gone to far.

Some might complain about cheaters others are pointing fingers at crackers. In all honesty, I think the developers should've taken better steps before locking down copy protected saves to the console. After all 128bit encryption and linking saves to the PSN ID should be enough.

I don't support the piracy side but I do support hacking in a way that gives the customers back features developers have taken away from the honest gamer. View

They also support copy protected saves. Basically if they stop the online support for these the games they're being disabled and losing functionality. EA also pushs for copy protected saves. Basically, when your games lose support or they shut down the servers the software loses it's functionality.

Gamers have become too accepting of these careless greedy practices. When you buy a product it should be self sufficient and not require the online components to function.

When functionality is restricted or removed these hard copy games become worth about as much as the materials used to create the disk. EA and other developers will continue towards this path because it's the most profitable way to push customers into the new products by obsoleting the previous years products.

Figure it this way. If the auto industry followed these examples every year or two we'd need to purchase a new car because the parts are no longer manufactured or compatible. This is the way the gaming industry is headed.

Gamers don't even realize it. We're losing backwards compatibility, losing the ability to backup our saves, the ability to resale or trade our games and the ability to play online after the titles become outdated.

What does it take to open the eyes of uneducated gamers this generation? The ability to pop in a game and enjoy it is being slowly taken away by greedy developers who only want to make money. This means creating products that have a limited or fixed lifespan.

By shutting down online servers or features games are being disabled feature by feature. It's sad really that most gamers only live in the moment and refuse to look ahead to the future when they purchase from developers who push this.

A lot of gamers talk down on PAY-PER-PLAY that Microsoft is pushing but haven't figured that we're still headed that direction with games that lose functionality. Please wake up all games are headed to limited subscription and everything this generation will lose a lot of functionality come next generation. View

Making PS3 remakes for ps3 instead of letting the old versions continue to circulate. Selling them as a collection with higher rates was a smart move. I wish more developers did this. (Hint SE FFVII)..

A FF7 FF9 and FF10 remastered would make my dreams come true especially if the ff7 is totally upgraded to ps3 standards.

Back to topic it only took this gens consoles to hit the sweet spots in cost and a few great titles to finally kick start this gen into something worth remembering. I just wish developers found a way around there bs protected saves. Hopefully Jeffie didn't choose that direction with his games. View

About Demons Souls.

I'm not really worried about the chat I'm more worried about losing 200+ hours of game play. The protected saves can't be restored to another PS3 if the original system breaks.

I bring up the point that SOME games should have cloud based backup for FREE. Games like Demons Souls although very fun and enjoyable are locked down at the save level so harshly that they lower the overall value at one point.

If these is a reason for cloud based backup these games deserve access to this feature as a free servive. It's not our faults the developers copy protect their saves. I think it should be the developers responsibility to offer these backup services free for their products.

We did pay for the software entertainment and the loss of 200+ hours of work because of a developer decision is flawed unless this cloud based backup service is given free to these locked save games. To do other wise is another middle finger to the customer who supports these products. View

Using your example.

VHS = PS1
DVD = PS2
BLU = PS3

So...

The current model PS3 plays PS1 and PS3 games but no PS2 games.

A PS3 can play DVD and BLU-RAY movies but of course no VHS.

Starting to see the picture? The PS3 jumps a full generation and the BC go's back to PS1. In Movie terms that means that the PS3 literally skips the DVD quality in favor of the VHS quality.

In this gen do you think the PS3 would look good as a movie player if they removed the DVD playback and had only the ability to download VHS quality movies? I think people would laugh themselves sick.

In the movie BC it's ok to obsolete VHS and keep DVD as fallback. But in PS3 it' be comparable to keeping VHS and jumping straight to BLU-RAY.

Frankly if they're going to remove BC it should have started with the PS1 compatibility. The truth is they would've removed that too if it wasn't so easy to emulate.

As for hooking up the VCR, Sorry I wouldn't. I'd log on to a movie site and watch it over the internet or download it off Netflix. The key point here is Sony removed last gen BC and made the BC so outdated it's be better just to forget BC altogether. Most gamers have shifted this way and shun anyone who thinks otherwise without compromise.

The bottom line : It's selfish when people complain about others wanting feature that doesn't affect them especially, when it does effect the people complaining for it. Now, unless there is a really good reason why BC should not be on the PS3, there shouldn't be any arguments about it. This I don't care you shouldn't either being forced on people doesn't help the problem. View

He might not be talking about the other games but when he makes that statement. He's speaking for SE as a conglomerate IMHO.

Dispute his possible intentions of reserving that statement to one particular title, it does appear to leak into a generalization of SE itself.

BTW, I didn't agree or disagree with your comment. As always it caught my eye and was unique. In essence you brought of a good point but sadly I don't think it's enough to determine his true meaning. This is one of those statements where the guy making the it needed questioned deeper about what he meant.

I believe it's the sole reason why his comments are looked at in such a negative way. View

"Square Enix: We don't separate East and West markets"

He could've been trying to say discriminate instead of separate. Just like in the early 60's when there was the black and white segregation push mentality. As long as black and whites have equal resources the supporters of segregation thought it was fair and not really discrimination.

We all saw how well that worked out. It's the same here. Instead of saying we don't segregate it's we don't separate.

Now, replace the <inserted word> with Segregate or Discriminate. Then you'll then understand the true meaning of his sentence.

"Square Enix: We don't <insert word> East and West markets"

Unless, the customer is extremely gullible or inapt at SE's current standing busyness practices they'd be hard to manipulate into believing SE's propaganda and hype model. Seriously, what is fact and what is fiction when a statement is made that seems totally opposite of the way things are being run at SE. View

In the FF11 they made the system so that the updates would always be on USA or EU prime times. The Japan players rarely ever had to sit out 10+ hours while they did server maintenance.

In Japan that would mean late night non-working hours or CAT-EYE shifts. It means they do server maintenance based on the JPN ofttimes. I'd assume since it's a worldwide game they'd do it in the daytime. So they are basing the maintenance around when Japanese players are usually asleep not EU or US players.

The timezones would mean in USA they'd take the servers down at 12pm PST and they'd be down to 6-8PM est. In retrospect Japan time the same server downtime would be in the middle of the night 3 am JST to 9am JST.

Yea, they also forced PC USERS to be the first to require the verified by visa garbage. Basically If you'd want to renew your account and you can't find a new credit card that supports it on PC. You're told piss off or get a new bank/credit card. This could be mitigated by using a 360 or compatible Sony console to renew the credit card data but, it's just BS.

this might change soon when they force everyone on SE accounts to use the internet SE management page for all account management. This will surely force players who want ff14 to take extra effort creating an account.

In the FF1, if an non-Japanese player upsets another non-Japanese player or a Japanese player upsets a non-Japanese player the GM request takes several minutes to get response. If the person who calls the GM is on a JPN account it's not always the same. It could take seconds to get a response. In the game players call this the JPN button.

Also, in Japan the gamers get updated faster to news then the non-japn playonline site.

Contry to what SE says they *DO* discriminate based on what I've seen in the FF11 management. Until you've witnesses it first hand, aside from them releasing the FF stuff in japan first. Don't say they're not and, definitely don't believe what this developer says about being balanced. View

Steam, Gamefly, and Used game resale = Games that are easily rent worthy.

These days games are more less licensed merchandise. The games like Little Big Planet grow as the game ages. Others have been setup to discourage resale. The a lot limit the save data as well so the game isn't really yours after sale because data you earn belongs to the developer as copy protected content.

You might as well rent your games or trade them in because after you beat them they aren't worth keeping. Why keep games these days?

1. Guaranteed loss of (Backwards Compatibility BC) for next gen.

2. Shorter games even some of the better RPG's only last a few hours.

3. Higher prices $60-$160 per game.

4. Protected Games saves that mean even if you do earn all those cool items if your system screws up there is a high probibility you'll lose it all anyway.

5. Game rental and trade in services that allow the gamers to recycle games without purchasing the products new.

6. Online games galore to occupy every gamers free time. This means. If a DEV's game isn't good enough to purchase it new then why should customers buy it? We can always find some entertainment leveling up on same MMO or online shooter. Obviously there's no need to invest in something new if your still enjoying something old especially, if money is tight.

The industry seems to be headed towards casual gaming. With all the hardcore games that are thrown out into the market few make it to the top as must own. Casual games are mostly time sinks that have no hardcore value but people continue buying them. Just look at the list a lot of these games making it to the top are casual.

The industry is also huge. The market is flooded with games. If a developers game doesn't stand above the status quoe (sp) it might not even get noticed. Would you believe a few years ago when I spoke to random gamers about games like Little Big Planet and Uncharted they didn't even know about it?

The funnest thing is these people I questioned about Uncharted and LBP. They where on PSN's home and/or Xbox live friends.

Bottom line, We shouldn't expect every game to sell well with the market in this condition. Even if a game does sell well the flood of casual gamers or random uneducated gamers will continue to skew the sales charts. View

I recently saw his dungeon siege movie and didn't realize he directed it till the end.

Did this movie stink because I loved the movie. I understand the guy has a big mouth but why does everyone hate his movies. Perhaps I've got bad taste but I enjoyed Transformers 1-2 as much as his "In the Name of The King" I was shocked after seeing the end state it was one of his films. Maybe I always followed group thought on the internet that all his movies are horrible.

Here is the link to the trailer.

If all his movies are this bad then I have bad taste. View

Locked and protected game saves. Last gen You could stick in another Memory card and save the game walla. If you wanted to play it at your buddies house you'd just take them memory card and game. You could easily load it up one any system.

Now days, your lucky if you can even run the game on your buddies system. DLC, updates and the fact that some of our saves are locked to the console and can't be transfered to another.

So, you know what? The game disk our ours the time we spend on them is real. The saves we earn and the data on them belongs to the developers.

So, you just spent 100+ hours on Demons Souls collecting all those awesome upgrades and levels. O drat, Your PS3 needs sent in for repair. Say goodbye to all your saves if they decide your system needs replaced. BECAUSE your not getting those saves back even if you've backed them up 50 times.

All I can say, here is..

Say no to DRM protected Saves. View

They'd relaunch some PS2 copies again. All they do is sell PC and 360 versions. The PS2 software is hard to find even if the PS2 HDD is no longer sold. View

Don't forget they took no shame in making the Dragon Ages and their other titles copy locked.

The favorite part of RPGs for me is growing and becoming a bad arse. Unfortunitly, those are short lived when you lose 100's of hours of work because DRM. View

EA seems to want their stuff to sale really well, They even create ways to encourage the sale of used games by including new content. Unfortunately, they do things that have negative impact. One of which burns me up so much I even wrote a blog about it on N4G.

I've noticed IMHO it seems like these big companies are trying so hard to not try hard. You're probably thinking WTF does he mean by that it doesn't make since. Well, I'm saying that sometimes they invest so much money into something positive and then go doing something negative that counteracts them.

It seems when companies get really big they think they become immune to the effects of bad choices. They do things that not only cost them money but hurt their relationships with the customers that support them. I've seen it done a lot from fortune 500 companies. They're big so they take bigger risk. Here are a few examples in gaming history.

Squaresoft thought they could make a Final Fantasy movie profitable and ended up going bankrupt over it. Sony happened to come along and bail them out. They crushed a lot of fans when the movie failed to be all the awesome that the Final Fantasy brand represented.

Look at Microsoft. Wanting to get a head start in this gen they launched a product they willingly knew was defective. They've started producing more reliable console and might even release a better slim next year. This upset a lot of customers when they had to deal with the repairs.

Sony, launched the PS3 at $600. They thought everyone would be willing to pay $600 for the PS3. The CEO even made a statement something like (it might be expensive but they'll work that much harder to buy it.) They finally figured it out and got the PS3 to a sweet spot in price. When Johny couldn't afford a PS3 he went and bought a Wii or a 360. Telling the customer they need to work harder isn't going to create any fans.

Atari, thought Pac-man and E.T. would sale so well they made more games than consoles. E.T. They lost millions creating a gaming crash. The market was flooded and Atari just lost consumer confidence. Yea the games where cheap but they where a dime a dozen.

Ask yourself this, If customers aren't actively saying how good a company is doing why would they we need to convince themselves otherwise? The customers vote with their money and if EA is losing money they aren't doing something right in Europe. Perhaps it's time to ask the customers what they want and what would make them happy.

EA is one of the largest developers in the game industry. They're supposed set examples for the smaller developers. If they're not doing as good as the public makes them out to be and customers aren't happy, They need to reevaluate themselves.

The bottom line. When a company becomes so obsessed with making a profit they lose sight of quality, and overall pride. When this happens the HQ starts getting run to purely around profit. They stop being looked at as leaders because they aren't being told by the customers "You're doing an awesome job." They instead try and convince themselves they are doing good. View

Someone must have laced their weed or something. The person got a package and it had some pot in the box (medical herbs if you live in some parts of California) My dad was ask if he was interested in smoking some of it from the neighbors. The next day while going to the library the wife of that neighbor had a massive heart attack.

I do feel for the family of this actor and regret her loss. I just thought people should know that sometimes these products do get laced with something that causes a delayed death.

This was like in the 80's so that trail s long cold. I remember watching VHS tapes the night before she died and my parents mentioning that they was ask if they was interested. My parents never did that stuff ever to my recollection so they didn't that night. I'm glad they didn't they might've died back then.

Sadly, my father did die less then a month later from a malfunctioning big truck but, that's another story.

Again, I regret the loss of this actor and pray for her family. May she R.I.P. T.T View

If I remember correctly 360 has copy protection but it also has proprietary hardware memory cartridges. These allow the user to save the games to these cards and even let them go to friends houses with those saves provided they log on that gamertag.

On a side note, both the Wii and 360 have been hacked and cracked. They hardly represent the same security level of the PS3 in terms of locking saves. It's good to know though that PS3 isn't the only console locking saves. It does however, place emphasize on just how bad this practice is becoming and the direction companies are headed.

Ask yourself this, do you think you're losing privileges when in the past we could just swap our memory cards out and create a new save on another memory card? Those days are headed out and before we can say next gen most titles might be locked to the system.

When gamers become desensitized to this practice and no one cares we might as well just rent our games because the content in them is locked.

I've neglected to applaud one company that stands out in the industry and seems to have done things right. If developers followed their example it'd be awesome and not such a big deal. That company is Media Molecule. Their Little Big Planet allows the gamer to backup this stuff both online and offline. The saves can be imported exported.

They've done everything to allow saves to be migrated to other consoles. Even set the saves up to know when a user is trying to use content they don't own or have installed. Still the saves work and can be restored. View

Yes If you upgrade your HDD the saves do get backed up to the HDD. On the negative side though when you lose a console or it breaks the saves on it that where protected do not restore. If you guys want to check it out take your backup to a new console and try to restore data content.

If it's the same unit it might take 20 minutes to recover everything. On the other hand, If it's another system it'll tell you not all content can be recovered and take something like 5-20 seconds. You can't even call up Sony to have them authorize the system restore to allow a single transfer to the new system even though they know it was replaced at their shops.

I think you both for the comments but to be honest both of you haven't encountered this problem yet. You've been lucky enough to not have a hardware failure and lose your console. When you do be sure to try your backup on your replaced unit. You'll see how useful those backups are when they don't restore everything from those backups.

I can assure you anything that is copy protected will not recover. If you read the user manual it even clearly states some data is locked and can't be restored. Fortunately you can re-download some purchased content under your account if you need to activate it on another console. This wonderful feature isn't available to save data. View

Why are they trying to patent this. It's already been done in other games to represent to player. Home has it as a feature when you desige your avatar you can make them fat or skinny just not obese or morbid obese. Isn't it against the rules to patent technology that is already public domain?

Microsoft, what are you thinking back when I played The realm the avatars allowed players to make themselves fat.

The thing about using a persons real height and weight makes me think "OMG, aren't we getting a little bit to serious here." View

it's the developers fault for selling products in such a fashion that even though a customer buys a game they don't own it because the work they put into it is owned by the developer. This making the reasons for keeping the game.

My PS3 was replaced with another unit each time. They didn't even bother repairing it. I Ask Sony to make every effort to repair my last console but it fell of deaf ears.

As for the developers.

It's plan pathetic that they cry blood when companies like Gamestop etc. resale their used games. They've even created DL content and given it out to original purchases to discourage customers from buying used games.

I feel These locked saves are an incentive for gamers to trade in these games because the developers themselves don't care enough to make the games worth of keeping in their collections. It's not in a gamers best interest to keep products that self destruct game achievements if tragedy hits. I'm not talking tropies I'm speaking about actual earned game data.

In my opinion developers who choose to not think outside the box by flat out copy protecting their games saves in laziness deserve every penny lost to used game sales and rentals.

This is exactly why I took the time to write this blog. I'm very passionate about the locked saves ruining the experience of many gamers. I'm no journalist I'm no one big and successful in the industry. I'm just an average Joe with a strong moral obligation to stand up for myself and others about this issue.

If we the gamer don't recognize we're losing our gaming privileges and stand up we might as well just quit gaming. The Industry is headed towards locking all content and frankly, I'm not happy about it.

We do pay for the rights to play and earn these achievements for ourselves. We're not all pirates and cheaters. So, why are we being treated as such? Copy protected saves are a lazy way to defend against dupe copying, save game piracy and cheating, plan and simple. I just wish more gamers where made aware of this problem and willing to stand up to it. Most journalist won't even touch it so it's left relatively ignored.

Many thanks for you're comment. -Sarick View

Copy protected game saves. My biggest beef this generation is when you play some games on pc or console te develop retains the rights to keep you from backing up the save you worked for and earned.

It's even worse if the games are buggy and self destruct.

It's sad really that a lot of gamers don't even register the fact that if they can't recover their saves in the event of a tragedy losing 50+ hours negates the enjoyment of a product.

A family member went and busted her rear on a game unlocking almost everything. The console got corrupted and she lost everything. When it happened again she just gave up on the game and traded it in for under 3 bucks at game stop. I'm so passionate about this I've since taken a second look at developers like Capcom, Altus and EA. View