Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of Kirby and Kid Icarus: Uprising has lost 18 years worth of data, as his PS3’s hard drive has crapped out on him.
He had one of the original 2006 models which were compatible with the PS1 and PS2. Which means he’s lost the save data for virtually three systems.
“The hard disk on my PlayStation 3 has completely died,” he wrote in his column in Famitsu. “It’s a full crash. The end. Goodbye, Planet Earth.”
“All of a sudden, I have lost all of my data for the PS1, PS2 and PS3,” he lamented. ” I’d like to say ‘All you can do is laugh,’ but I can’t! The first PS came out in the end of 1994, so that means I’ve literally built up 18 years’ worth of save data on the thing. This isn’t just a matter of losing data I spent a few hundred hours on, or losing my character in some MMORPG. This, that, and the other thing; every single bit of it is gone.”
He continued: “I had a lot of save data from games I spent dozens of hours on. Now I can’t go back to those epic RPGs and take in all the famous scenes where I saved just before. The fighting games where I unlocked all the characters; the experience points I earned for being all those liquid metal slimes… I could take off of work for half a year and still not have enough time to get it all back.”
He finished with some friendly advice: “Going through this, I wanted to take this column to nag at all of you a little. If you don’t want to come face-to-face with this depressing turn of events, then it’s best if you back up your game save data as much as you can. Right now! Immediately!”
How devastating. You have our condolences, Sakurai-san.