American PS2 demo disc wipes save data

Losing save game data is one of the worst fates that can befall a PlayStation 2 owner. We felt bad enough when our Burnout 2, Beyond Good & Evil, Prince of Persia and Final Fantasy X saves were nuked by our curiosity in the seemingly cursed wares of Wipeout Fusion; we can only imagine what it's like for people whose gaming lives are reliant on a single slab of rewritable flash and not spread over several like ours. Except, in fact, checking around some US forums over the weekend, we did more than just imagine it; we witnessed the fallout first-hand.

See, Sony America has made a boo-boo. According to numerous reports from the States - since confirmed by Sony in a statement issued to registered PlayStation Underground types - a Viewtiful Joe 2 demo on the platform holder's latest PlayStation Underground holiday demo disc has the unfortunate side effect of wiping any save data on any memory card.

"It has just been brought to our attention that there is a glitch in [the Viewtiful Joe 2 demo] which will erase all of your saved files from your Memory Card(s). If you have not yet played the Viewtiful Joe 2 demo, please remove your Memory Card(s) from your PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system before you load the Holiday 2004 Demo Disc," the company said. "Sony Computer Entertainment America would like to express our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you."

Thankfully most of us won't have to worry about the problem, but we felt it was prudent to let our various American readers know just in case they haven't heard about it. But remember, Euro-folks, when it comes to demo discs you generally can't save the game anyway, so removing the card beforehand is almost certainly a good idea. Tread carefully.