Single-player saves won't transfer in cross-gen games

A $10 fee to go from a current-gen game to a next-gen upgrade might sound enticing on paper, until you realize that you won't be able to bring your single-player save progress with you.

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To ease the transition into the next-gen, both PS4 and Xbox One offer ways of upgrading cross-gen games on the cheap. And while games like Battlefield 4 and Call of Duty: Ghosts will allow players to transfer their multiplayer stats between generations, single-player data will be lost when moving between generations.

A Kotaku report specifies that a number of fall releases will not allow players to import their single-player save progress. These titles include Battlefield 4, Call of Duty: Ghosts, and Assassin's Creed 4. Considering that the latter is largely built on a single-player experience, the lack of cross-gen save files might be an important detail to consider.

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Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

From The Chatty
  • reply
    September 25, 2013 1:00 PM

    Ozzie Mejia posted a new article, Single-player saves won't transfer in cross-gen games.

    A $10 fee to go from a current-gen game to a next-gen upgrade might sound enticing on paper, until you realize that you won't be able to bring your single-player save progress with you.

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      September 25, 2013 1:06 PM

      how could they fuck this up

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        September 25, 2013 1:18 PM

        Name one console that let you bring your saved game over from a previous generation console.

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          September 25, 2013 1:22 PM

          I WANTED TO NAME TWO :(

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          September 25, 2013 1:36 PM

          the reason why it's noteworthy is because of the deals for upgrading your old gen game to new gen. this hasn't been done before either. how useless is that to get a month head start and the upgrade doesn't carry over any of your progress?

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          September 25, 2013 1:44 PM

          [deleted]

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            September 25, 2013 2:05 PM

            You could use GameCube memory cards on GameCube games on wii. Not on Wii games.

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          September 25, 2013 1:46 PM

          PS1 to PS2, GameCube to Wii

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            September 25, 2013 1:48 PM

            [deleted]

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              September 25, 2013 2:06 PM

              Suikoden 3 (PS2) could read Suikoden 2 (PS1) saves for bonuses in Suikoden 3. There were a handful of other games that did this as well.

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                September 25, 2013 2:08 PM

                Not the same as bringing a game save over to pick up progress where you left off

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                September 25, 2013 2:15 PM

                That isn't quite the same thing though. Especially if all it does is look to see if a save is present. It would be entirely different if it had to load actual game assets.

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                  September 25, 2013 2:28 PM

                  Actually, the game did load information from the save file for use, like character levels and items. The Suikoden 1 save file would impact Suikoden 2 when imported, which would then impact Suikoden 3 when imported.

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          September 25, 2013 2:02 PM

          Gameboy to Gameboy Color to Gameboy Advance to Gameboy Advance SP. Four generations right there. And I have an original GB Tetris cart that was carried across all those generations.

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            September 25, 2013 2:07 PM

            You are talking about backwards compatibility. Not a new game on a new system accessing a game save info from an old game.

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              September 25, 2013 2:22 PM

              I think you're missing it? They're indicating that if you have the XBox 360 version of BF4, the save game won't transfer over to the XBox One version. It is the same game but on a new system.

              My Tetris cart carried over the save file regardless of what generation the game was played on. I did not have to delete my GB save to play on the GBA; it was compatible and carried over regardless of what system I plopped the cart into.

              Now, I don't expect cross-gen compatibility for games. However, to say that I wasn't bringing my saved game over cross generation is wrong. It clearly did. The difference in scenario is that my cartridge could hold the save file, while a disc obviously cannot do so. Considering the cloud save options for both systems you think this still wouldn't be an issue, but whatever.

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                September 25, 2013 2:40 PM

                Your Tetris cart was always the same Tetris cart. But if you download a game to ps4 that was previously played off ps3 disk, it's a whole different copy of the game.

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                September 25, 2013 2:54 PM

                But you didn't use the old save with a GBA release cart of Tetris. That's the comparison here.

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                September 25, 2013 3:08 PM

                [deleted]

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                  September 26, 2013 4:17 AM

                  How do you know the raw data in the save file isn't the same raw data, encapsulated in a different platform-specific header and/or DRM encryption scheme?

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                    September 26, 2013 4:29 AM

                    Because it won't transfer over and presumably if it were that simple, it would.

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            September 25, 2013 3:05 PM

            [deleted]

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          September 25, 2013 2:18 PM

          PlayStation 2?

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      September 25, 2013 1:17 PM

      Who cares, dont you always play through a great game again when you update your graphics card.

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      September 25, 2013 1:24 PM

      [deleted]

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        September 25, 2013 1:33 PM

        AC4 is most definitely not.

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          September 25, 2013 1:42 PM

          [deleted]

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            September 25, 2013 1:44 PM

            I care ... I would have bought AC4 for 360, but I figured the saves wouldn't transfer to XBone, so I'm getting it with my XBone instead.

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              September 25, 2013 1:44 PM

              That said, it doesn't bother me that much ... GTAV should tide me over for awhile.

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              September 25, 2013 1:45 PM

              [deleted]

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                September 25, 2013 1:49 PM

                Because this is the first time they're trying to entice upgrading to the next generation with cheap upgrade fees?

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                  September 25, 2013 1:51 PM

                  [deleted]

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                    September 25, 2013 1:53 PM

                    I'm not really upset, I figured the saves wouldn't transfer.

                    But it would have been nice, and actually made me buy both versions, if they did transfer.

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                    September 25, 2013 2:43 PM

                    Dude. You have so much anger! homeboyJim brought up a valid point: since these publishers are allowing gamers to upgrade current-gen versions of certain games to next-gen versions, it makes since to presume that save data might carry over as well. It's not a deal breaker, just kind of a bummer.

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                September 25, 2013 1:50 PM

                Its news because of the upgrade program. That has never been done before either.

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      September 25, 2013 1:29 PM

      meh, who cares.

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      September 25, 2013 1:34 PM

      i dont want to pay an extra 10 bucks and i want to carry over my saves. luckily i'm patient.

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      September 25, 2013 1:40 PM

      So even PSN+ users with Cloud Saving won't be able to transfer progress? Huh....

      If true that really doesn't make sense to me....PS4 will still have PSN+ correct?

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        September 25, 2013 1:42 PM

        Yes, but I'm sure it has more to do with different save formats or something.

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          September 25, 2013 1:48 PM

          Huh, yup still not making sense, since I would think that the next gen consoles versions would just come with flashier graphics/better performance. I wouldn't think that would change the way the save file is formatted. Ah well. All this was curiosity anyway, no plans on getting a console as long as my PC holds up.

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            September 26, 2013 5:02 AM

            Same here. 500 bucks goes a long way for PC upgrades.

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      September 25, 2013 1:42 PM

      Least of my worries

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      September 25, 2013 1:46 PM

      Kinda expected this.

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      September 25, 2013 2:38 PM

      I kinda hope transfering my save for Diablo3 might be the exception to the rule on this.

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      September 25, 2013 2:39 PM

      Slow news day eh?

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