Topic: How is game data saved between user profiles?

A couple of weeks ago I bought Tekken for my WiiU. First I played a few matches on my profile, then my brother played a little on his profile. We noticed that each one got its own save file and now we always pick the same user when we play Tekken. Is the other save data taking up storage space? Can I delete it seeing as we will never use it?

I don't have that game (or a Wii U), but from what you're describing it sounds like both profiles have access to the same save files, so if you're both sharing one deleting the unused one probably would not matter.

I assume others would understand better, but I think I will go into detail just to be sure.
I started the game and beat 2 tutorial levels. My brother started the game and saw that no stages were cleared. He played through the first 3 tutorial stages. Then I went back on and saw that only 2 were cleared.
I've never come across a system like this one before and I have to admit it took me by surprise.

It seems to vary by game. In some cases the save is per-profile so players cannot use each other's save data which is something I appreciate and also means you don't have to worry about not having enough save slots for the number of players.

Other games have a pool of save slots that is visible to all players. I've noted this seems to be true of the Mario games primarily as well as Little Inferno. It's slightly annoying having only three save slots in a multiplayer household with more than three players, but for games targeting younger players I can see the logic of wanting to avoid people having to switch users just to take a turn at New Super Mario Bros. U. Lastly there are games like Nintendo Land and Wii Party U which appear to use some kind of Mii-based save system so that records and achievements get recorded regardless of which profile launched the game (though Nintendo Land has a per-profile theme park for unlockables).

With regards to your question I have to ask if you're seeing two save files in the data management section of the settings menu and if you can distinguish one from the other? If not, then the game is using one save file to track multiple users; if there are multiple files I'd be surprised if it uses enough space to bother worrying about it. On the Wii the majority of games used one save block, so it wasn't relevant unless you had a system that was bursting at the seams and you had tons of games ; this is even more true on the Wii U with a Basic system that has sixteen times as much flash storage...

Sorry, I forgot about this topic. Yes, there is only 1 save file under data management. Thank you for letting me know that the data on the unused profile will not prove to be a hindrance.

As long as you're resurrecting this, I just hooked up a second hard drive to my Wii U as a backup for my games and I cannot see any distinction between game and game save. Note that I mostly have downloaded software, but this looks like how the 3DS downloads work. So regardless of how saves work in-game the system stores it all in one logical location - you cannot break out save data by user.

This is something that needs fixing on Wii U.

If you go in to data management you can see the save data seperate from the GAME/DLC/PATCH. The only thing you can do with it though is to delete the save data. Pretty worthless actually.

Some games share a save between users like NSMBU while 3D World has seperate save per user.

If you have USB storage connected you no longer see save data separately. You can copy data to the USB storage but only all of it, not just saves. If you have retail games this basically means you have no way to back up your game saves. If you mainly have disc games you may be able to fit your data on a USB device and your saves should be backed up and be able to restore (I haven't tested this but Nintendo CSR claimed I could do that) but even with this method your USB device is locked to a single Wii U console so you can't take your save to a friends house.

Ideally USB storage is fine, but let us back up just our saves to it and do not make it be console locked. I also would like the ability to copy saves between users. The confusion of this implementation has led to me having saves scattered across users. I password protect mine now so my saves won't accidentally be erased but some games with good progress I would like to copy to another user. Same deal the other way, I played Co-op in 3D world and now would like to tackle the harder levels solo but I will have to do that on the public user and it could be accidentally deleted. And then if someone selects the wrong user and there game save isn't there it's a PIA to log out and then go to the correct user to play the save game.

This is one of my main gripes about the Wii U. The other of course being forcing use of the gamepad for artificial reasons. Third is the Wii Mode needing the TV be on and having the correct input selected to start when using HDMI as well as not allowing the gamepad buttons to be used. FIx these things and I will be very happy. Someone get Nintendo on it right away.

@blaisedinsd
#1 Your thread died, get over it, don't keep bringing it up. Find a new hobby
#2 Yeah the save thing is odd but if you're "backing up saves" to a large HDD you have the storage. Blowing this way out of proportion as usual.