If you pick up a used copy of Mercenaries 3D, someone else's progress will likely be there.

You can't erase your saved data in Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, a decision that's provoked a vocal controversy regarding the rights of consumers and the issues surrounding trade-in games.

GameStop had originally started telling its stores to not accept the game as a trade-in, but a statement released to IGN said that policy had been reversed. VG247 contacted UK retailer HMV, who said it would not be stocking used versions of the game.

I've contacted both retailers for more details.

Capcom, however, was not willing to comment on any of this.

"It is Capcom policy not to comment on the choice of retailers to stock any particular product," said the company in a brief statement.

Capcom claims the decision to lock data was not made in response to used games, insinuating it's a technical issue of sorts. That's something many people have taken issue with.

"Secondhand game sales were not a factor in this development decision," said the company, "so we hope that all our consumers will be able to enjoy the entirety of the survival-action experiences that the game does offer. In Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, all mission progress is saved directly to the Nintendo 3DS cartridge, where it cannot be reset. The nature of the game invites high levels of replayability in order to improve mission scores. In addition, this feature does not remove any content available for users."

Capcom expanded on this response through its community site earlier today, too.

"There was no intention of lessening the experience of the game," said Capcom community specialist Sean Baxter. "Essentially, RE Mercs was treated like an arcade fighting game. You unlock characters, levels, etc and they just stay unlocked as they would in an arcade machine. There was no hidden motive to prevent buying used copies. It's not some secret form of DRM. It's simply the way we designed the save system to work with the arcade type of gameplay."

Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D went on sale for the 3DS earlier this week.