To the dismay of Nintendo, a homebrew developer by the name of Jordan Rabet has publicly revealed how to access homebrew games on your 3DS using the free YouTube app from the eShop.
As complicated as ever
The steps to access the homebrew games on the 3DS are heavily complicated and require the aid of the YouTube video that Rabet has put up under the username, smea.
Using the steps he provides in the video, any user can access these homebrew games; which happens to include an Aperture Science-themed Portal game.
Rabet refers to his exploit as the TubeHax, and guarantees that it doesn’t allow the 3DS to play pirated games. While that may be the case, Nintendo wasn’t extremely happy when he previously discovered an exploit with the game IronFall: Invasion which was promptly removed from the eShop upon the discovery.
Rabet has had quite the reputation of exploiting games, also including this past November when he used Cubic Ninja, and dubbed the hack Ninjahax. Cubic Ninja faced the same removal from the eShop while a firmware patch was being developed. Regardless, Rabet affirms:
“This launcher does not in any way let users run pirated 3DS software.”
Since TubeHax was found, Rabet says that it’s only being used to run out-of-region game cards on the 3DS, along with customized themes and running emulators for SNES ROMs.
Nintendo’s Fury
When developing software there are always hacks and exploits that arise, but Nintendo will have to develop firmware patches to protect the 3DS system from further exploits. Nintendo has yet to confront TubeHax, having recently updated the firmware on the YouTube app to 9.9. It’s only a matter of time until Nintendo steps in and ruins Rabet’s fun.
Do you think homebrew is malicious against Nintendo or is it fair game to exploit software that is at your fingertips? Comment below with your thoughts.
