DOA4 bug erases save data

US gamers who finally got their hands on delayed Xbox 360 title Dead or Alive 4 last month are still not happy - since it appears their saved games are mysteriously disappearing.

That's according to a poster on the Gamespot forums, who recounted what happened after he'd spent ages playing through the story mode and unlocking loads of fighters.

"I played a few more sessions after that, and then booted up the game again only to find out that all of my [DOA4] save data was gone," the poster wrote.

"All of my unlocked characters, costumes, leader-board achievements, online ranking, ALL GONE!"

Oh dear. Tecmo admitted that there's a problem with the game, telling Gamespot: "We're aware of the issue... We're working to identify and resolve the potential problem with the technical folks at Microsoft." A patch is on the way shortly, apparently.

There's still no word on precisely when Dead or Alive 4 will be released in Europe, but chances are they'll have fixed the bug by then. Fingers crossed, anyway...