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[levyjl1988]

With the latest patch of Super Smash Bros Ultimate it has left an undesirable outcome with corrupting a small user base of players save data.

How should developers address and compensate players for corrupting or losing players save data through their patches despite undesirable circumstances.

Sure we have a backup system in terms of cloud services but that requires an online membership such as Nintendo Online, Xbox Live, and PS Plus. Not everyone has that.
And most of them function through an automatic sync system.

What systems are in place to prevent a corrupt data from being uploaded and being uploaded as a backup. Xbox doesn’t have manual backing up of saves like Nintendo does, they only have automatic.

I remember losing my save file for Super Smash Bros 3DS while performing a 3DS system transfer. I also lost my Mario Kart 7 3DS save after going to home and closing an application because racing online was frozen. I lost all my data. I lost 4 hours into Assassin’s Creed 2 because of automatic saving with uPlay. I remember all my time and effort wasted. I learned and backed up my save data on USB sticks during the Xbox 360 days.

What systems are in place for backing up save data? To me save data is more important. I lose or get my console stolen I can buy another one to replace it. But save data is personal. I invest heavily into it. The amount of time and hours to grind. I got over 400 hours of Monster Hunter World. If I lose all of that and I would find it VERY difficult to simply just start over. It’s a grinding game afterall. With a full time job its hard to reinvest that amount again.

So besides the developers apologies and shoulder shrugs what can be done as a solution or preventative measure for gamers?

I still think Microsoft should have multiple encoded manual back upsaves as a safety net besides automatic saves. It’s more of a peace of mind thing.

What are your thoughts on this?
Patches and game updates can just make your save data go up and vanish and piss players off.

 

[MisterBrimstone]

Just paint new colors for a character in 2 min and gift them. They will suck it up.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Don't buy games at launch.

Teaches the developers a lesson, and you never suffer through their bugs.

 

[BigBooper]

Refunds should be offered if the thing you bought doesn't work right.

 

[levyjl1988]

Don't buy games at launch.

Teaches the developers a lesson, and you never suffer through their bugs.

Devs can still fuck up with their patches and forced game updates.

 

[Codes 208]

How would they even determine how players should be compensated?

Customer: excuse me, the newest updated erased my save files.

Company: oh ok. Did this bug brick your system or cause permanent damage outside of corrupted saves? Does it still work?

Customer: yeah the game still works, it’s just the saves are gone. Can I have compensation?

Company: let’s see, since there is no material damage to the software or hardware the most we can give you is a carton of milk and a half eaten hot dog.

 

[A.Romero]

Data is never something you can hold a vendor accountable for. There are too many factors and the cost of the info itself it's a pain to valuate.

What they should do is provide better tools to manage them. I know they are trying to protect the platform but ideally, save games should be encrypted files than can be moved around in any device but only decoded with the private key that each account has. Still, this would not solve save game incompatibility among different versions of the game (pre-patch, post-patch).

This is an issue on the PC environment as well (I miss my Witcher 3's 200 hour save games) but it's impossible to hold anyone accountable for it.

 

[Voost Kain]

None. Save data is separate from the product you purchased. It's all in the small print. Even if the glitch is the direct result of an update the developer implemented which erased all the saves you had for all your games they are not required to compensate because save data has had small print policy since PS1 memory cards and no ones protested for changes because most don't even know it's there.

 

[Ballthyrm]

Each game has its own save system. So it's not like the devs can reuse something they did 25 years ago because it worked then.
There is a ton of moving pieces and most of them do the most they can to avoid theses kind of situation.

All they can really do is apologize and promise to do better next time.

All that automatic saving is often what is best for the majority of players who don't know what a manual save is (let's be honest here)
Same thing with the cloud save.

It's going to fuck up, once in a while because that's what complex systems do, you can't prevent everything.
And please don't lecture me with how it use to work just fine back in the day, the complexity of games today is way , way , way higher.

Just like vaccination works for 99 % of the population, it doesn't suck any less to be in the 1% of the case it doesn't work.
When there is millions and millions of people playing games, there will be thousands of people who get their save corrupted.
It doesn't mean that devs should be hold responsible for it.

 

[Codes 208]

Data is never something you can hold a vendor accountable for. There are too many factors and the cost of the info itself it's a pain to valuate.

What they should do is provide better tools to manage them. I know they are trying to protect the platform but ideally, save games should be encrypted files than can be moved around in any device but only decoded with the private key that each account has. Still, this would not solve save game incompatibility among different versions of the game (pre-patch, post-patch).

This is an issue on the PC environment as well (I miss my Witcher 3's 200 hour save games) but it's impossible to hold anyone accountable for it.

And here lies the crux of OP’s complaint. I certainly don’t blame my GameCube or Nintendo when my memory card has a corrupted save. It’s not a perfect system but there’s no real 100% way to prevent it. Shit just happens sometimes. “Forced” update or not.

 

[Fuz]

This is why I make backups of pretty much all my saved games.

Yes, it's an anachronistic habit that I carry since the DOS games era.

 

[Shodan09]

Just paint new colors for a character in 2 min and gift them. They will suck it up.

It's really sad how accurate this is, and I'm part of the problem.

 

[Neverwas]

maybe they should provide a blankie for you to cry into.

 

[levyjl1988]

Microsoft should have a Safety Net, an additional manual save (created by the user) apart from sync saves to fall back on if ones data were to be corrupted.

So if I have 500 hours into a game and manually save it into a Safety Net. Then I continue to play, the save files are synced throughout the consoles, and then by sheer bad luck. Power goes out during the saving mode or a bad patch and update corrupt save files and that gets synced to the cloud, I am not totally screwed. I can go back to my last manual save. I would rather lose a few hours of progress (last manual saved) then lose the entire 500 hours and start at ground zero.
With games like Monster Hunter World where there is heavy investment, I want to make sure my content, progress, and effort is saved.

 

[TYRiAX]

You are never going to get actual compensation for having save data corrupted. Even if they were to give you some free DLC for the game sucking so much (think that happened with Assassins Creed Unity?) its not going to be equal value to the time needed to redo those saves.

 

[Kagey K]

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