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A day after the debut launch of the Wii U in the US, consumers are reporting a ‘hack’ to the Nintendo console.
While the precise details of the hack are yet to be clarified, a user of gaming forum NeoGaf has claimed to have entered a debug menu on his Wii U, without any hacking techniques or apparent intent.
More precisely, user Trike has claimed that using the X button of the Wii U controller while ‘hovering over the exit button’ granted him access to the admin menus for the Miiverse, apparently bestowing him the power to delete user accounts. Trike provide a number of photographs of the menus at the start of the NeoGaf thread, including some of an apparent Nintendo test survey which suggested a new Yoshi game was inbound.
"I found out I could access the debug menu on Miiverse by hitting the "X" button on the gamepad while hovering over the exit button," wrote Trike. "I found an admin access list or something to that effect. I couldn’t really do anything from there though. I could view different messages from a developer though. One mentioned that there would be big games coming out (announced?) on the 10th of December."
While Trike’s detail and photographs could be deemed genuine, many, including NeoGaf members, are suggesting the screenshots and details are some kind of hoax.
As reported by CVG, Nintendo seem to have blocked Trike’s access to the menus – if that access even ever existed – and the company has used an official Twitter account to confirm that it is working on unspecified issues relating to Miiverse and user connection ‘problems’.
‘So many Miis have jumped on Miiverse that some may be having problems connecting to the service. We are in the engine room getting it fixed read the Tweet.
If Trike’s ‘hack’ is genuine, Nintendo’s reputation for protecting the identity of users may be negatively impacted, although the lack of reputable detail about the debug menu access means it is too early to assume the NeoGaf user’s actions warrant concern from either consumers or Nintendo.
