8 Video Games That Deleted Your Save Data Just For Fun

Now, piracy is a hot-button topic these days - but whatever your stance on the matter, everyone loves a good example of creative copyright protection.

Should you fancy skimping out and playing the original Earthbound for free, you might be in for a nasty little surprise. If you play an illegal version of the game, it will let you progress almost the entire way through the game… until you make it to the final boss.

Once you reach this point, the game will forcibly crash and then erase all your save files as punishment. Just to twist the knife further, if you managed to actually make it this far - it was likely ten times harder than it should have been than if you were playing on a legitimate copy, as playing on a pirated copy of the game would have resulted in you running into more than three times the amount of random encounters.

For anyone that's played Earthbound, they'll know exactly why that's so evil. Running into upwards of three times the amount of random encounters would make the game an incredibly frustrating experience, only to reward you by... stealing the sweet victory screen from your grasp.