Gamesave questiong

Yep. And there are utilities for windows users that will allow you to back up saves from a USB stick if you're really really worried about it.

I haven't played Stake 3. What happens if you try to copy the save game file to another storage. Does it say the save game file can only be "moved" to another storage or it lets you copy/move the save game file to another storage but when you load the save game file on another console with same Gamertag, part of the game progress is missing?

If you can describe each of your games that you can't copy or move the save game file to another console, I maybe able to help you better. For now, I'll describe different types of save game file lock that I have seen and with workaround to backup or copy.

There are several types of save game locks on X360 games:

1. The saved game file cannot be copied but allowed to be moved to different storage.

2. The save game file appears to have no lock but if you copy or move the save game file to another console and load with the same Gamertag that played the game, part of the game progress is missing. I found this type of lock saves part of the game progress on the file that you can see which can be copied to other storage while part of the game progress is store in the hidden partition on the hard drive.

A workaround that usually works is before you choose which storage to save, remove the hard drive before starting the game, plug in an USB flash stick, start the game and choose the USB flash stick as the place to save your game progress. After this, you can plug you hard drive back to the X360 and always use the USB flash stick as the storage for the game progress because everything is now stored on the USB flash stick that can be moved to other consoles.

If you have save game lock that is like how I described in #2 but you already chose the X360 hard drive as the save game storage, plug the X360 hard drive to a Windows PC and use USBXTAFGUI utility to view the hard drive manually. Difficulty is most files stored on X360 hard drive are just a bunch of Hex numbers. Only a few games named the save game files by the title. A lot of guessing game which is the file you want or you can copy every file to another X360 hard drive.

3. Alan Wake game stores part of the game progress in the save game file and part in the Gamertag because on different console, once you load Alan Wake game with the same Gamertag without copying any save game file over, the game already has the items found progress info. Only the chapter progress require the save game file to be copied over. Halo Reach seems to be using a similar type of save game.

4. I haven't seen this type of lock since Dead or Alive 4 and DOA Xtreme 2. Both games have save game file locked to the storage device that you chose to save when the game saved for the first time. The save game file is not allowed to be copied or moved to other storage. My workaround is save the game on an old type of X360 memory card. With the old type of X360 memory card, I have a memory reader that I can image and clone the entire X360 memory card contents. Another method is use USB flash stick formatted for X360. By using USBXTAGUI utility, it can create images of USB flash stick as backups. But you cannot directly copy the files individually to another storage because of the unique encryption for every X360 formatted storage.

For myself, I'm very paranoid of able to backup all save game files from all the games I played. 1st thing I check after playing a new game for a few minutes is if the save game file can be backup easily. I'm always surprised to read so many gamers don't think about backing up their save game progress until they have lost the save game file or need to transfer their game progress to a new X360 console. Maybe I'm an old school computer user but able to backup multiple copies of my work is important.

My opinion is X360 generally has a way to backup just about every type of locked save game file as compared to PS3. On PS3, a lot of games have console locked save game file to the console which can't be individually backup. (Full hard drive backup is possible but very impractical on a large hard drive). The game publishers who chose to console lock the save game file care more about preventing trophy hacking than let gamers protect their save game progress. In other words, they simply don't care if your hours of gaming progress get lost if the save file gets corrupted or the console failed. On X360, I have a way to backup every type of save game file lock that I know of even when the game publishers don't care.

All achievement and trophy are good for is bragging rights.

What I do before buying non-exclusive games is ask friends or forums on those who already bought the game on PS3 version if it has console locked saved game. If it does, then I usually buy the X360 version. Complaining about locked save game later doesn't help because the game publisher already made the sale. The only way to get the publisher's attention is not buy the PS3 version.

As for Stake 3 on PS3 that has "copy prohibited" save game file, migrating to a new console is the only way it can be moved. Once the migration utility has completed moving all the files from old to new PS3, the old PS3 hard drive gets erased. You are only allow to have one "set" of the data.

As for the history of console locked save game files, following publishers love to lock their game saves:
EA and Capcom are the worst. (Even their newest games are inconsistent which game gets locked saves and which doesn't). If you ask the game developers, the answer is usually pointing finger at Sony or publisher on who decided to lock the game saves because no one wants to take the responsibility.
Activision has some mostly on music games.
Sony has some. Interesting with Sony published games is they can't point their finger at the developer since Sony is in control over the game.
Ubisoft also has some.

Of course, try to encourage your son to get into the habit of backing up (non locked save game file) often as he made progress. It never hurts to have too many backups because when you do need it, you will be glad than hoping nothing ever happens to your only copy of your "work". (My opinion is too many users today, computer, smart phone, etc are too trusting on the hardware, software or service provider to manage their data and assume their data never get lost.)