Copy protected saves (data transfer utility)

[cimerians]

I just got a new slim PS3 with a TV bundle. I kind of want to give the 60GB PS3 a rest anyway. (I have a PS2 hooked up for those games if I want to play them). My problem is I have Dragon Age on the old PS3 and the save files are protected. That's a lot of hours of gaming going to waste if I can't transfer the saves.

 

Question is:

I have heard that there is a data transfer utility (not the data backup utility) where you can transfer protected saved games to a new unit. It deletes the saves from the old unit and puts them on the new unit.

Anyone know if this is true or if it works? I haven't taken a look yet on my PS3 to see if the utility exists but I'll be home tonight to check it out.

 

Kind of nervous about it cause I don't want to lose 30+ hours of gaming that I did.

[HammR25]

http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/current/settings/transferutility.html

[moycon]

Nice, looks like all you need is an Ethernet cable.

[cimerians]

Cool thanks....I wonder if I HAVE to de-activate my old PS3 since I still want to use it to play games (in another room in the house).

 

Or maybe I have to de-activate it so the content will transfer and then re-activate the old unit later after the transfer finishes and I activate the new PS3. So if I have both activated then I'll have used 2 of my 5 console activations.

Anyone know if I may be right about that?

[cimerians]

Anyone who wants to know:

 

It took about 8 hours to xfer all the data using the ethernet cable (not sure how much total. Guessing 200G on a 600G drive).

 

I had to de-activate the original PS3 (re-activated it later).

Activated my new PS3 and now I have two systems where I can play all my games on with or without being logged in.

 

Also, only a few things didnt work like VUDU (simply re-installed it).

[Gabsters89]

I wish I had known that there was a utility for it. I did this awhile back, just using a flash card for the save files, and what I noticed is that being protected or not was based on who published it(I'm looking at you EA). I lost my NHL 10 data, Dead Space, and the Godfather data too. Beh.

[Mendon]

Any ideas/thoughts on why companies are copy protecting SAVE files?

 

I just read this thread and recalled that earlier this year my grandson stayed with us and played the heck out of Animal Crossing on my Wii. He wanted to take his SAVE file home with him when his vacation time ended, so I bought an SD card for him but couldn't copy the SAVE file from the Wii internal memory to the SD.

 

Is hacking so bad today.... compared to the PS1, Dreamcast, PS2, GameCube, etc years.... that even SAVE files have to be copy protected?

 

Really curious.

 

 

Mendon

[moycon]

Is hacking so bad today.... compared to the PS1, Dreamcast, PS2, GameCube, etc years.... that even SAVE files have to be copy protected?

 

Really curious.

 

Mendon

 

I don't know if it is the reason, but I have heard of people hacking gamesaves to get trophies/achievements they didn't actually earn.

Maybe that is one of the reasons why?

[Gabsters89]

Any ideas/thoughts on why companies are copy protecting SAVE files?

 

I just read this thread and recalled that earlier this year my grandson stayed with us and played the heck out of Animal Crossing on my Wii. He wanted to take his SAVE file home with him when his vacation time ended, so I bought an SD card for him but couldn't copy the SAVE file from the Wii internal memory to the SD.

 

Is hacking so bad today.... compared to the PS1, Dreamcast, PS2, GameCube, etc years.... that even SAVE files have to be copy protected?

 

Really curious.

 

 

Mendon

Ea is and always has been the main offender on this stuff. They claim it's to stop cheaters from getting trophies and to fight piracy, but there are a few others... a few Ubisoft and Atari titles are too. It's mainly to stop cheating the trophy system though i think, cause if it were for piracy reasons Sony(seems like they have 91 divisions to fight piracy) would probably do it for any games they publish. I think hacking was worse back then personally. Modchipped PS1's were all the rage for awhile there. And when people realized the DC had no actual copyright protections on the discs, and it was all a matter of a simple audio compression, it became a freaking free for all. Definitely was worse.

[Atariboy]

A big reason for it in some games is to protect the online multiplayer. Otherwise, it ends up like in Project Gotham Racing 2 were a significant percentage of the online userbase downloaded a save and used a GameShark to transfer a save with all the vehicles unlocked to their Xbox.

 

So the people that worked hard doing such things as getting all platinums (Something I never cared to try since it was so hard) to unlock certain vehicles felt cheated when much of the competition got it without even venturing into the single player mode.

 

The locks on such things as Animal Crossing, Mario Kart Wii, and quite a few games on other platforms is to help preserve the integrity of the online communities so people aren't getting things like new weapons, new vehicles, and such for use online that they didn't actually earn the way the developers intended.

 

I'm not really sure why it happens on the PS3 and 360. Making the saves tied to a specific profile while locking out any other profiles from loading the save would seem to solve the problem (And also prevent people from abusing it to earn trophies and achievements). There's no good reason why I can't copy a locked save on my 360 to a second 360 and load it up after recovering my gamertag, or a PS3 save after entering my PSN id. Then a GameFaqs user can't just download my save and attempt to log into an online multiplayer match under his PSN id, but my own use wouldn't be restricted.

Edited December 26, 2010 by Atariboy