Jak X: Combat Racing - Autosave Memory Card Controversy

Autosave Memory Card Controversy

Early copies of Jak X contained a programming glitch that can potentially affect a PlayStation 2 Memory Card. The first symptom of the glitch occurs sometimes after a race, during which the Autosave feature will continue to blink for a much longer duration than usual, or when you go to the garage before the race begins. Sometimes the game will no longer load and must be reset, while at other times the game will continue to run as normal. This glitch can potentially corrupt the Jak X save data, causing the game to no longer recognize the data at all. In some extreme cases, the entire memory card can be completely corrupted, or be filled up with space that cannot be deleted or written to. The only solution is to delete the data in the PS2 System Browser and restart the game from scratch.

A workaround is to take the memory card out after the game has successfully loaded and continue to play as usual, as the autosave cannot function without a memory card inserted into the system. When players need to save their game, they can return to the menu, replace the memory card, and save Jak X manually. The memory card should then be removed once the save process is complete if continued play is desired.

In the second week of April 2007, an e-mail was sent out from Caley Roberts, an associate producer at SCEA, to several users who had written to Naughty Dog about this issue, confirming that they have fixed the bug and are offering exchanges to those users who were affected. However, as of this time, a return e-mail address to actually contact Caley Roberts has not surfaced and any e-mail sent to SCEA only results in a response asking the sender to call their customer service, who is not informed first-hand how to help with the exchange program and suggest that the sender e-mail them instead. An issue of Official PlayStation Magazine stated that if the player's memory card is corrupted, the player can send in their copy of the game and memory card for a free copy of Jak X: Combat Racing, a new memory card, and a copy for free of a selection of SOCOM: Navy SEALs games.

The "Platinum" release of Jak X still has autosave errors. Neither SCEA nor Naughty Dog decided to take any responsibility for broken memory cards. SCEE's solution was to send a new memory card to victims of the glitch.