Just when you thought it was safe to get a new PS3… A few months back, I bought a new PS3 to replace my launch console. If you haven’t read about how transferring all my data went down, go take a look in this direction. The big complaint I had surround protected game saves and the inability to transfer them to my new PS3. I lost all of my progress in Killzone 2, Street Fighter IV, Fat Princess and others. Fast forward to yesterday and the announcement of the Transfer Utility included in firmware v3.15. Everyone thought the world had righted itself. Wrong. According to Sony Europe’s James Thorpe, you still can’t transfer protected game saves with the new system.
[..] you can copy all PS3 save data except for game saves that are protected by the game publishers through the transfer utility. Please check in the game manual for Killzone to find out if the game saves are protected
Looks like people thinking of grabbing the smaller, sleeker, less power hungry PlayStation 3 need to think twice about what content they’ll lose by moving to a new system. I wish I knew how much I’d lose before I made the plunge. I played Street Fighter IV almost every day before getting the Slim. Now I don’t even touch it. I don’t want to bother unlocking all the characters again.
So, Sony, if you want people to get your new system, please make it a bit easier to move data between consoles. When I bought my Xbox 360 Elite, I was able to transfer everything from my old 20GB hard drive to the bigger 120GB drive with zero problem (and there are locked game saves there as well). Maybe one day they’ll get it right…
It is INCREDIBLE to me that a company the with the experience in the market that Sony has is having issues with this stuff. As I’ve said multiple times, I’m a PS fanboy at heart but the PS3 has been one giant cluster since the beginning.
+1…. this is lame. I wondered if I was making a mistake when I switched from Sony to the Xbox 360. This makes me feel like I didn’t. Sony = customer satisfaction FAIL.
dont come saying these crapping things ´bout u changing from the ps3 to xbox cus that option lacking, it will be there with time..but no xbot, xbox will never be better than ps3…so u really fail, enjoy ur faulty machine…i will be playing final fantasy xiii right away…lmao with its complete experience..no with compressed crappies videos etc in fact…xbox is doomed for the next quarter of the year. xbot.
Hey Matt do you think it is this way because the hard drives are easier to trade out. It is a pain in the ass but it seems as though they do this to keep people from trading game saves as you can do on the psp. What do you think?
I’m going to lean towards no in this case. If you do a system backup on the PS3 and swap out your hard drive, you can do a full restore to the same system and not lose anything.
However, the console protection thing is due to concerns about Trophy cheating. I’m unsure why they lock it to a console as opposed to a PSN or local profile though (the way it’s done on the Xbox 360).
I’m really surprised at this from the standpoint that this is a sanctioned first party tool to move your data to another system. Microsoft’s transfer cable/software that ships with 120GB Xbox 360 hard drives does in fact fully move ALL data, including what’s protected (Halo game saves are a perfect example of this).
To me, it’s just another thing that Sony has taken a stab at but not fully realized what the consumer wants and needs.
IMO there shouldnt even be protected save games. if my brother wants to play all the songs from Rock Band then I should be able to make a copy of my save game and give it to him via flash drive. its not cheating or anything, trophies dont go with it. and if i have 2 systems like one in my room and one in my living room i should be able to transfer data between them also via flashdrive, its my saved game let me have it. what would be sweet is if you had a wireless media connection between two PS3 that you could transfer data between them over the wireless connection.
really tired so might not sound right or be worded right
Why would someone base a buying decision on,…game saves?
Great article…I wanted to transfer my Assassin’s Creed 2 save so I can put it on a new system but NO…now I will have to play it all over again if I want to achieve 100% in all aspects of the game. GRRR!
Wrong. If you create a backup of all of your PS3 data to a USB hard drive (anything with enough capacity) and then restore that data to your new PS3 you will have all of your protected data transferred, along with every other file, setting, video, mp3, etc. all at once. This is one way Sony and game publishers copy protect their data, as hacking game saves is one way to hack an entire operating system or copy a game (look at the PSP). While it sucks that I can’t make a backup copy of my hard earned Demon’s Souls save, I’m fine with this type of copy protection and anti-cheating mechanism. Especially when the alternative is console banning and being banned for exploiting a well known bug in a game (MW2) like on the 360.
No. Whilst the system backup will copy EVERYTHING to an external hard drive, it will only restore EVERYTHING onto the same console. If you perform the restore on a different console it will not restore protected save data (or game data for that matter).
There’s a growing list of games which have copy-protected saves, my personal hates are Rock Band 2, Skate 2 and NFS Shift. What’s even more annoying is that devs can easily ‘un-protect’ them via a patch if they desire, as they did with Motorstorm 2.
@ RuddigerPez
Amazing how morons make comments like yours without actually trying what they recommend. If you have ever tried this, you would know how FALSE your statement is.
Having moved my data to my 4th PS3 (Slim), I can tell you personally that you are absolutely INCORRECT. And Sony will confirm that as well. Sony “lets” the developers lock their files to a PS3 (not a PSN ID, as the XBOX 360 does with Gamertag). Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is another game that does this as well.
Please, get your facts straight before you post false comments as you did.
While it sucks that I can’t make a backup copy of my hard earned Demon’s Souls save,
What you on ???/ seriously you just posted that you can back up copyright saves …read .>>>
If you create a backup of all of your PS3 data to a USB hard drive (anything with enough capacity) and then restore that data to your new PS3 you will have all of your protected data transferred, along with every other file, setting, video, mp3, etc. all at once. T
I just got off the phone with Sony, and yes they do have the worst customer service available. Its like they dont want to waste time with complaints, which is what they are there for.
Forget not been able to transfer game saves, how about not been able to access your purchases on the network because you have run out of systems allowed on your account. I just got a new PSP GO and its useless, since I cant transfer my purchased content unless I deactivate my other PSP, thus rendering one PSP useless. I wish I knew this before taking the plunge too.
Sony really needs to start working a fix around this. The supervisor’s advice? make a new account, purchase everything all over and get on with your life, might as well tell me to F&C# OFF
@RuddigerPez
wrong my delirious friend, you can only back up data and restore it to the SAME PS3 unit. If you back up data and restore it to a NEW PS3 SYSTEM than all protected data will be rendered useless, as a matter of a fact it wont even restore to your new PS3, a message will appear warning you that the SYSTEM BACK UP UTILITY was not able to restore all data, thus your KILLzone 2, Street Fighter 4, and Rainbow Ssix Vegas will be gone.
If you restore to the same PS3 but on a different HDD than yes you will still have all your data. I would know as Ive done this 5 times, after getting my PS3’s serviced all the time.
[...] This leads me onto a ps3blog top tip… Don’t rely on this Firmware update to save you in a crisis, get yourself an external hard drive, format it to FAT32 using a 3rd party partitioning tool, connect that baby to your PS3 and BACKUP YOUR DATA. This is the only way to actually insure your data is safe from loss in the event of a catastrophe. Yes, it won’t save your game saves, but neither will FW 3.15 will it? Oh and one more thing, sync your trophies. Source [...]
How would you know if a game saves protected data? Does is indicate on the game box?
lame and stupid article. Its called using the program Norton Ghost to transfer data from Hard drive to hard drive through a PC. It transfers EVERYTHING.
Whoever wrote this article should be slapped. Repeatdly.
[...] Well not so fast tiger, seems you can do that to everything EXCEPT game saves. Now I understand it’s a method to protect abuse of the trophy system but in many ways, it is actually ridiculous that you can’t keep your save games. Having said that though, wanting to transfer data through a network cable is kind of silly in the fact that if you do get YLOD, it won’t matter will it? As data can not be recovered in any case. [..] you can copy all PS3 save data except for game saves that are protected by the game publishers through the transfer utility. Please check in the game manual for Killzone to find out if the game saves are protected This leads me onto a ps3blog top tip… Don’t rely on this Firmware update to save you in a crisis, get yourself an external hard drive, format it to FAT32 using a 3rd party partitioning tool, connect that baby to your PS3 and BACKUP YOUR DATA. This is the only way to actually insure your data is safe from loss in the event of a catastrophe. Yes, it won’t save your game saves, but neither will FW 3.15 will it? Oh and one more thing, sync your trophies. Source [...]
Useless feature that is by far the stupidist they ever added ..Now i have to restart my games that can’t be transfered dam …them
how easy the transfer that they mention to be so bloody easy is not its all frustrating process Ty sony
Wow this is terrible. I ordered a Slim yesterday, and I’m just now realizing I can’t back up my Demon’s Souls progress. What is the point of not letting me back up my game progress? Something about people abusing the trophy system? I agree cheating is weak, but I paid $400 for the system, $60 for the game, and I can’t back it up and save my progress on my new ps3? This is the most idiotic thing i’ve ever heard of. I’m going to have to redo like 45 hours of gameplay to get back to where i was. We pay all that money and we should be able to transfer our data between consoles. Period. The thought of re-doing all of my progress makes me want to puke.