Okay call me a console nub or whatever. So I have PlayStation 3 that I hardly use and only play 2 games on it. Since I want to upgrade my console to the newer version I went to copy my save data to a USB so that I could transfer it to the newer system.

Guess what, can't do it. I rang Sony support and they said that some games are programmed to stop people from copying save data so that they can't cheat with achievements and trophies and stuff. Like I give a crap I just want to copy my save data. I’m sure this is old news to some of you but it’s new to me. I just can’t belive this. I know some PC games store your save data in some obscure location and you sometimes have to use Google to find out where it is so you can back it up, nut you can still back it up.

They said that I can use Playstation-plus an online subscription service to back it up online. Of cause I expected it to be free; I know subscription usually means you have to pay but surely to just back up my save data wouldn’t cost anything right? No, wrong I have to subscribe to the service in order to just back up my data.

Sorry for the long pointless heard it all before rant, but I honestly feel just a little violated here, I’ve never heard of a save file using DRM before. Such a basic and important function should not be taken away like.

Some games do that, I lost my old Demon's Souls save because they locked it to your console, but I did manage to keep and save everything else when I had to switch systems. I'm not really sure why some companies do that though.

I know the Dreamcast had this on some games (pretty small minority), but wasn't aware if any other consoles do. Apparently PS3, then.

This is news to me. All my PS3 game saves transferred fine. Albeit in an annoying either copy each and ever save file individually or copy the entire PS3 disk image.

In the past there wasn't much point to transferring game saves between consoles as you wouldn't normally need to replace a console except to upgrade to the next generation. Even now Nintendo makes it a bit of a pain because they don't expect enough people to upgrade to the next revision of Wii to make the effort worthwhile.

The OP is probably going to have to use one of those software products we don't talk about on the fora here to get at those game saves. Which is beyond asinine.

Now this is just being asinine :/

DRM is going to fuck over consoles ten times harder than it does the PC. This is why I laugh at people like Orcish who are console gamers because of evil PC DRM.

If you have a spare hard drive or will have the upgrade with the old PS3 simultaneously you can just make a backup of your PS3 which will include all the saves even the DRM ones. I ended up replacing my old 60 gig hardrive with something like a 500 or a tera - I like to collect hard drives for some reason. The re-imaging process can take a rather long time and can be a pain if you are going for a fresh HD. If you are trading in and have a spare external hard drive that is FAT32 and has enough space for a full image or that you can re-format to FAT32 I suggest making a backup image before trading it in. I also suggest using a linux distro for any reformatting as they seem to support FAT32 on higher disk sizes - MS has a strange nonsensical limit, and Linux is faster. The DRM on some of the PS3 games is a PITA....

edit - added Linux to is faster, as Linux in my experience re-formats a quicker

Yes, but OTOH, I personally use consoles often times because it's a lot less expensive to game. You've got how ever hundred up front, then you pay a few dollars a month to rent whatever games you like. It doesn't take very many games before you're back in the black.

Oh okay, I have a pocket external HD will this work with windows and do I need custom firmware to do this?

Many PC titles do this as well, especially GFWL titles. I've had a few cases where I've had to start over because I reformatted and I couldn't restore my save games due to DRM. Street Fighter 4 and Kane and Lynch come to mind straight away. Having to unlock all my extra SF4 characters was not particularly funny.

Of course, there are many reasons to game on consoles. I just don't think DRM is one of them.

I misread your post, yeah, switching to Consoles because of DRM is probably the worst reason I can think of for making a switch.

Well it should work, it really depends on if you just want to upgrade the system or replace the Hard Drive.

Upgrading the system just involves plugging in a FAT32 hard drive and creating a PS3 image which you can do through the System Settings->Backup utility to your spare drive. If your drive is not of the required format it will not show up as an option. Around the time of the backup you will need to sync your trophies and potentially deactivate your PS3.

for switching out the PS3 Hard drive I mostly followed this guide: http://www.remedialthoughts.com/2011/01/upgrading-ps3-hard-drive-and-avoiding.html

The major issue you can run into is not having the appropriate firmware available. I pretty much did the backup overnight and kicked off the restore before going to work in the morning.

All parts can be mostly done through windows, though windows does have an upper bound on how large a hard drive it will allow you to format to FAT32.--> I have no idea why this is however.

Laugh all you want, I've had 10 times the problems on PC that I've had on console. Since PC keeps getting more restrictive... well, I don't know why anyone would crow over the PC scene these days. See the new PS3 hack today for why console DRM has the same ace in the hole that you think PC gaming does...

It's most probably going to be like that, yes. But right now, it is not. Right now, consoles are the only way to enjoy AAA games and avoid this kind of DRM the PC suffers from.

And well, you know, it's not like you signed a contract with your blood to stick to consoles for the rest of your life. If shit hits the fan on future generations of consoles, you can switch or quit at any time. And you can even keep and use your consoles and games until they physically break, no matter what happens, because you are not tied to an account system or activation server or shit like that.

Besides that, laughing at somebody because he's going to be fucked much more than you are fucked right now is not really a healthy attitude. Lately I hear this argument from Glorious PC Gaming Master Race People quite often. Instead of recognising the common threats, PC gamers and console gamers are finger-pointing at each other like they were rivals. This stupid crab mentality is not going to help anybody and I'm sick of it.