Nintendo has removed a Switch game from the eShop following a revelation from its developer, who disclosed having covertly placed an "easter egg" that allows people to create basic apps.
The role-playing, text-based game called A Dark Room was pulled from the eShop on April 26th, two weeks after its launch, after creator, Amir Rajan, revealed having placed a secret code editor which uses a programming language called Ruby.
"Last week I released A Dark Room to the Nintendo Switch. Within the game, I also shipped a Ruby interpreter and a code editor as an Easter Egg," Rajan said in an online post.
"This Easter Egg effectively turns every consumer spec-ed Nintendo Switch into a Ruby Machine."
According to Rajan, all one had to do to access the editor was to purchase the game, plug in a USB keyboard and press the "~" key.
Nintendo apparently caught wind, and has since pulled the game from the eShop, leaving Circle Entertainment, the game's publisher, shocked. Rajan has offered up an apology of sorts, claiming that his intentions were pure and he only wanted to help kids discover the joys of coding.
"I deeply regret how this has blown up," he said (h/t Eurogamer).
"A simple toy sandboxed environment has been framed as this massive exploit. And of course, it's the community that exploits these things that pushed it up to that level. I'm partly to blame with my sensationalized media posts.
"I acted alone and stupidly. It was a last second 'spark of inspiration' and I snuck it in assuming that plugging in a USB keyboard and pressing the "~" key wasn't part of the test plan.
"Having Circle deal with some of this cannon fire is not something I'd ever want. These past three days have been the worst days of my life. And I don't know what to say except I'm sorry, and all I wanted to do was allow kids (and coding adults that have forgotten the joy) to discover what I discovered 25 years ago."
Despite Rajan's claims of goodwill, he should have expected this. Nintendo has always been concerned with security on the Switch and they have a history of taking down fan-made titles and penalizing those who profit from Nintendo hardware piracy before even adding a code editor.
Going as far as making an announcement online was never going to work out well.