Electronics die, that’s a fact of life.
We went through 3 Playstation 1 consoles due to laser failure, and now it seems we’ll have to replace our PS3. $300 aside this isn’t that much of a concern of mine (we’ve had it for over 2.5 years). Especially since I was expecting it (60GB backward compatible launch models seem to have an unusually high failure rate).
But why the hell do some developers lock save files so they cannot be backed up!?!?!?
I’ve put almost 80 goddamn hours into Star Ocean 4! I’ve just killed the first post-game superboss Gabriel Celeste and was very much looking forward to taking on the uber-superboss Ethereal Queen but – oh no sonny! – I can’t back up the save file. So it’s gone with the PS3, and I won’t be able to continue playing the game on a new console. 🙁
The same with the savefiles for KLS’s game Dragon Age Awakenings. This is even worse, since the developers (Bioware) apparently had no problem with unlocked saves for Dragon Age, but went and locked them for the sequel. And she’s only half-way through the game and now has to start from scratch.
There’s a reason the suggestion on the Playstation boards to unlock save files has a +5000 rating, and that’s because it’s a dumb idea. Fix it now Sony. I’ll shelve this dead PS3 until the day you do, and then I’ll update the OS and retrieve my Star Ocean saves and finally finish the postgame…