The reason: The game does not let you reset saved game data. Why? Presumably as a parlor trick to disuade used (or as I call them: pre-owned) game sales. But Capcom ambiguously says that’s not the case.
“Secondhand game sales were not a factor in this development decision,” Capcom said in a statement to Giant Bomb. “This feature does not remove any content available for users.”
But as Ben at Ars Technica notes, “If this isn’t to hurt the resale value, why else would you do this? This hurts everyone who buys a copy of the game, and significantly harms the long-term replayability of the title…So thanks, Capcom. You have made my purchasing decision much easier.”
Please join Ben in boycotting the game, won’t you? Besides, haven’t you played like 10 iterations of Resident Evil already?