Homebrew Exploit Gets Yet Another Game Pulled From The eShop

Ironfall: Invasion, an indie multiplayer shooter for the Nintendo 3DS has been pulled from the Nintendo eShop after the discovery that it can be used to boot homebrew apps and games.

The exploit was found and shown by the coder and homebrew developer Jordan Rabet (Known as Smealum to the community) last week. He planned to launch the exploit this week, calling it Ironhax until the game was removed from both the U.S and European eShops on Tuesday.

https://vine.co/v/ewaAjwMagFv

This exploit was particularly concerning to Nintendo because Ironfall: Invasion was free to download from the eShop. At the beginning of Auguse, Rabet encouraged “everyone interested in 3DS homebrew” to download their free copy and to spread the word through social media.

Rabet apologized through twitter, for forcing the removal of the game. However in March VD-Dev, the developer of Ironfall announced that the game had been downloaded 300,000 times.

It is likely that, the game will be back on the eShop once the exploit has been removed. As for now, Rabet is telling homebrew enthusiasts to download the YouTube app on the eShop, vowing that he will be making a big announcement sometime soon.

This isn’t the first time Rabet has done this. Last November he released Ninjahax, an exploit that took advantage of pule game Cubic Ninja by AQ Interactive. Cubic Ninja was also taken down from the eStore until Nintendo could patch the 3DS’s firmware. Due to this, GameStop raised the price on used physical copies of Cubic Ninja, which launched in 2011, to $39.99 from $5.

Homebrew has always been a problem for Nintendo, particularly during the run of the original DS. The R4 cartridge was a very popular method of piracy, as it allowed pirates to store homebrew software and games onto a memory card to be used on the DS. This caused the R4 to be outlawed in a number of nations.

What are your thoughts on piracy in the gaming industry? Do you think it’s fair that Nintendo removed the game from the eStore?

Tell us in the comments below!

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