Wii U accidentally hacked via the complex procedure of pressing X. Unannounced games possibly discovered. Possibly

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UPDATE: Nintendo has shot down hacking theories in a response to GamesIndustry International. “It has come to our attention that some people were able to access a mock up menu on Miiverse following the launch of Wii U in the US,” Nintendo said. “Please note that this was only a mock up menu and has now been removed and is not accessible.” The original article follows below.

Chalk up one amusing day one failure for Nintendo’s big step into online services. A new Wii U owner has apparently managed to crack into the online Miiverse community’s debug menu using naught but a standard controller and a slip of the thumb.

Miiverse, Nintendo’s online community/forum/noticeboard, is a major calling card for the Wii U’s move into proper online connectivity. But it seems that all the excitement might have led Nintendo forget about removing a back door before the console’s retail launch. A really, really simple back door. According to NeoGAF user Trike (opens in new tab),

“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. 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.”

The ‘hack’ has apparently now been fixed, meaning that the debug and admin functions of the Miiverse are now the sole domain of Nintendo. But aside from the above refrerence to big releases on December the 10th (nothing is currently officially listed for that date – the nearest high profile possibilities are the Japanese releases of Assassin’s Creed III (opens in new tab) and Batman: Arkham City (opens in new tab)), Trike apparently also spotted what appeared to be article content tags for multiple big franchises such as Resident Evil (opens in new tab) and Metal Gear Solid (opens in new tab).

He also found what seemed to be official game database entries for a ‘Yoshi’s Land Wii U’ and something called ‘Soul Hackers’. Though given that the debug menu’s user list also contains Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and John Lennon, we wouldn’t go too far with assuming that any of the debug content is genuine yet. There’s every chance that everything Trike saw was just placeholder content.

But hey, this is the internet, so let’s speculate, right? The campaign for the return of Acid Ghost (opens in new tab) starts here.