Splatoon 2 Hackers Are Forcing Unreleased Content Onto Other Players

Just lol.

Not sure I understand The issue - the stage is ready in full but being held back??

Hackers have made it available to play now?

I don’t see the harm really?

Why is the guy on twitter asking people to snitch? His mummy should be keeping a tighter reign on his social networking time or the bigger boys will bully him

Cheating In the game and hacking to win - not cool.

Playing on a new stage.... cool surely??

See ?
That's why Hacking is considered as an illegal activity.
They (Hackers / Crackers) misused their intelligent to do such a shameful activity.
What did they want to proud of ?
Nothing to be proud of !

"Crackers" is the proper term. Hackers are a different "breed"
Please use the proper terms.

Game mods and Nintendo Life go together like Tom & Jerry.

You know what would have helped?

Every site HINT HINT not reporting on the details of getting backdoor access to the system and games AT EVERY DAMN OPPORTUNITY!

What happened to "Dont discuss hacking or modification of current systems and software"?

Did no one think, hey, this makes it easier to find and thus more people can do it?

@Knuckles-Fajita
Eh... right.

@Stocksy No, not cool. Hackers experienced in a map playing people who have zero chance of having played the map before... Hackers suck.

Mess around all you like with your own things but don't drag anyone else into it.

This is why I'm against the whole hacking/piracy scene in general, it eventually just annoys the average player.
Would we not prefer to have the developers working on new content instead of having them waste time patching this up?

Ban them and get it over with.

I wish I was smart enough to figure out how to do these things. That said, not cool to use it against others online.

People like that are real douches and their behaviour shouldn’t be tolerated, but that doesn’t mean all hackers are like that.

I guess the Switch was still too unstable. RIP Stability. 😢

@Knuckles-Fajita I agree with this.
Much like you don’t want the hackers cheating in your online game, I don't want the stuff in my standard news feed.

Next thing, they'll be reporting that I’ve released 8 brand new 3DS Homebrew games over the past couple of months.
But that would also encourage hacking, albeit on the 3DS.

That stuff just doesn’t belong here. It should stay on hacking sites, not in the mainstream.

It's so weird that I never run into these types of stuff personally in my gaming session but only know able them on social media from others (same with bug fixes).

At this point we should start learning to use the term crackers and script kiddie instead of the common term "hackers", since that leads to a lot of misunderstanding.

@Stocksy They have an unfair advantage, since this is in ranked mode. The other players haven't even had a chance to examine the stage and train on it before suddenly being thrown into a high level matchup on it.

What if the hackers report the innocent players to get banned? I mean, that would worry me since I do play quite a bit.

@Stocksy You are the hacker, right?

Sue them for a million dollars. No I'm serious.

And I mean EVERY hacker. I don't care how innocent of a hacker you are.

How hard is it to play the game as intended? Like does it cause them physical pain?

@Stocksy @link3710 It's not even that it was accessing a hacked stage - they were in League Battle, and the hackers forced the match to play Turf War, which doesn't appear in League at all.

So these guys went into League, ended up playing a completely different mode, on an unreleased stage.

Snitches get stitches

@Stocksy Maybe it's not so much that they "unlocked" this new stage. Think about it, if they're able to do this, what else are they able to do? Most likely, everything else mentioned (unlimited ink, rapid ink, etc). Do you still want to play against these guys then, even on a map that shouldn't be available?

If you need/want to cheat to win online at videogames then you need to re-evaluate your life.

Would not have happened with dedicated servers...

@Spanjard ha - clearly not as I’d have realised about it being in a ranked mode and this makes it non ranked - which changes my opinion completely. I don’t do online gaming at all really. I’ve always felt people are looking for cheap ways to win even without hacking.

To everyone else @ing me - tbh I still think if the stage is there and hidden - an easy way to avoid this is just release it already.

I feel for Those that are heavily invested emotionally in online gaming modes - people are always cheating and doing cheap tricks.

@BensonUii me. I do stand corrected.

Wow. Can these people like, please stop doing crap like this? Just be patient like the rest of us, you bunch of [censored].

Hacks can be fun, and it can give us a great look into game development like getting a look at test maps and all that. But then you have these kinds of people that just makes me miss the old days where hacking wasn't really a thing yet. Most particularly in offline gaming from the pre-Wii era. Ugh.

Stick all the cheats and code fiddlers in their own online area and leave the rest of us to enjoy the game in its unmolested form, might not be seen as much of a nuisance to some, but to others (especially those with limited time to play games) behaviour like this can ruin the fun.

I just started playing this, so I’m not at an extemely high level, but I’m pretty consistently good for my level. Last night I played a game that was very fishy. There was a team of low level players that I kept getting matched against in turf. They were very low and yet they seemed to have access to skills, weapons and immunity that shouldn’t be available to such low levels. Maybe I’m just being paranoid, or maybe I can’t accept getting creamed by new players after thinking I’m pretty good. But I’m around 15-16, I had team mates that were in the 20-30s, and I got locked in every time by this cheaty team. I was in a very hateful mood last night.

To state my usual position: I have no problem with hacking/Homebrew/what-have-you as long as it's done locally and with the full consent of any other players involved. This, however, is cheating at its finest. It is unfair and unethical to force unreleased and illegal modifications onto other players who are playing by the rules.

@Stocksy If you see nothing wrong with this then you're part of the problem.

Just saying.

I am against anything that would give an unfair advantage when it comes to hacking / modding / cracking in online play, but do whatever you want offline.

In all honesty why has no one made a game where the goal is to hack it and try to become a god in the online world? Seems like a good idea for a game, hell you could even create in-game tools to edit your abilities or create new ones.

There is nothing to condone with hacking. Nil, nada, zip. Ruins games tbh.

I’m against all the people who don’t pay their correct taxes

"Nintendo does suggest that Splatoon 2 players report others who misuse the software, although this can only be done through the Nintendo Switch Online app."

What??...really......lulz

Haven't played since first hackers were confirmed and won't play until Nintendo ends this.

Through the history of consoles, hackers have hacked consoles for 2 sole reasons: cheating and piracy.

They can label it however they want, but they’re just cheapskates.

I assume these are those "harmless" hackers everyone was talking about?

This is great. Next time I lose I’ll assume the other team was cheating.

@RadioHedgeFund erm... why do you assume that?

@stevenw45 if Nintendo was smart they would do what Guild Wars 2 does, do a tiny client side and server side patch every day and it makes the hackers have to recompile their MARSHMALLOWS to make it comparable again, they have to do that every day. The longer you leave your game without patching the easier it becomes to hack.

@Stocksy How is it not cheating if they've early access to the map, time to practice and learn it completely? Plus, it's clearly a hacked version they're playing on. How hard is it for players to just wait until it's released officially?

Systemic cheating and exploit abuse has turned me off to do many competitive multiplayer games. Thank God for the Octo Expansion.

@RadioHedgeFund except that's not true at all and you don't know anything about he subject lol. Please sit down and be quiet.

Hackers like to hack. Breaking the security measures is already the goal. Script kiddies cheat in games using these exploits found by others.

This is another reason why hacking is awful.

I don't care if you're doing it for the homebrew. Creating a demand for hacking just opens up Pandora's box and ruins everyone else's fun.

FU, hackers. All of you.

Hackers- you are not popular - nobody likes or wants you . .

Yo, I'm the hackerman. I've hacked so many Splatoon games, I've unlocked a playable jellyfish. I'm infiltrating everyone's game, I'm always standing there in the plaza, noodlin' in a puddle of water.

@Yorumi I agree. It’s funny how even today mario kart Wii has its servers which are free to play and when someone cheats, they are instantly banned. That’s on the Wii

online cheating just ruins the fun for everyone's experience.

@Stocksy the problem is, your risking yourself to be banned for using an unreleased stage that Nintendo hasn't put up yet for everyone to use.

The joys of peer-to-peer.

@1UP_MARIO Lookin' at you, Yoshi...

@Stocksy actually hackers are in general losers 🤣

Maybe he wanted people to help player test it

@Stocksy Whenever you play with unreleased content there's a high risk of getting permabanned by nintendo. Basically when they run it on public servers like that it has a chance of getting innocent players banned forever.

Should release it now then Hackers wouldn't need to do the dirty work for them.

what is with holding back content that's finished and on the disc already?!?

Beginning of the end, folks. Between hackers, paid online making people quit, Smash and Fortnite providing hefty competition, and players already quitting left and right, this game is going to be dead in America likely before the end of the year.

Attention Hackers. Hack your own games for you and your friends who ask, but please leave the rest of us be. Thanks.

How come when I get online and start a match people are just hopping in one spot instead of playing the game?

I've said it before, I'll say it again: Hackers ruin everything.

Wait. Nintendolife PROMOTES emulators, which is all about stealing content and copyright though they say the above is going to far?

LMAO. Nintendo Life, stop with the hypocrisy!

You have something for hackers NintendoLife? Send it rightaway to Nintendo. No need to inform us daily about criminal activity.

The anonymity of the Internet has let people be the truly worst version of themselves - it’s why I don’t game online except with friends.

Hopefully all got better, when the Nintendo Online Service starts...

@Nintendoforlife They aren't. Hackers are not a hivemind, there are those who hurt others and there are those who do harmless things like swapping models.

While I totally get how aggravating it must be - and I certainly condemn that they did it in League, when you are actually battling for something - at least this way we get to see the map sooner! And it reminds me a lot of Mahi Mahi Resort, one of my favourite S1 maps.

@Cosats The video isn't from NL, it's from some Splatoon players as you can see in the tweet.
And I wouldn't necessarily call it 'criminal activity'.

@LUIGITORNADO @Slasher Stop generalizing. Some hackers just want to have fun and do harmless things like swapping assets and whatnot. As long as it's all offline or with only your friends, it's fine.

Why should those who don't harm anyone be seem as villains?

While I totally get how aggravating it must be - and I certainly condemn that they did it in League, when you are actually battling for something - at least this way we get to see the map sooner! And it reminds me a lot of Mahi Mahi Resort, one of my favourite S1 maps.

@Cosats The video isn't from NL, it's from some Splatoon players as you can see in the tweet.
And I wouldn't necessarily call it 'criminal activity'.

@Pestilence The online service won't change anything about that. It's just another source of income for Nintendo.

@pullmyfinger I already told you before, Emulators are just tools to play ROMS, emulators in no way promote piracy.

It doesn't matter if most people who use emulators are pirates, the intentions of the people who make those emulators are to preserve the games released to a console, and also to make it possible to play those games in a higher resolution.

They want us to pay to play online yet it's so easy to hack online games on Switch. It's one thing on PC, at least you don't have to pay, but when you have to pay or will have to that's just not acceptable...

@MimoDX2 Ok but they're creating and developing gateways into their switch. Gateways that are then put out and used by others for what we see above.

If people want to hack/crack then go it with like minded people. Don't hijack the games of innocent players.

Hackers in Splatoon 2? Sweet! Now I have another excuse for losing matches besides "They keep putting the bad players on my team and the good players on the other team."

Hackers like this ruined Mario Kart DS.

I don’t understand how one can derive any satisfaction from a victory obtained by cheating.

It IS cheating to change the stage, by the way. The hackers probably have been playing that stage all day and figured out how to play it, and everyone they played against had never practiced that stage. Knowing all of your alternate routes is crucial sometimes.

To be fair, the people who got into this map and played in it are complicit too. They knew they were playing in unauthorized content and gave proof of themselves knowingly and willingly participating in the hacker's actions by releasing this video. If they want to come out of this unscathed, they should have exited the moment they saw what was happening. But they just showed they're as guilty as the people who "forced" them into this.

@TheOpponent Hmm... unless its written somewhere in the NNID user agreements, the players had no way of knowing that they were supposed to quit the game immediately whenever they see hacker activity. And that would be pretty silly rule, too. Chucking your Switch into the fireplace because you think someone on your team might have survived a fully charged E-Liter shot or something.

Besides, their motivation wasn't to play unauthorized content, their motivation was to keep their league score up. You can't blame them for that, can you?

@Jop Wow if that's really true then that's actually even worse in a way, I never knew. ...still, I don't think it was even as widespread back then because there was no internet to spread the word (and hacked files and roms) and all.

@TheOpponent I disagree. One needs concrete proof to accuse people of hacking, and this is unshakable proof versus exiting the first second (people would say they edited the video). Besides, exiting will be penalized as ragequitting thus affecting their score (even though it's an unfair hack).
They did the right thing by recording the full evidence and raising public awareness.

@Jokerwolf Ilike that idea!

@MimoDX2 Well in a way they promote piracy just by making emulators available to the public. If they really want to just "preserve" their games then they don't have to give it away. If others want to do the same then learn to code and make one yourself. Sharing dump tools/emulators to help out the community? You have no obligation to do so and doing so unfortunately and ultimately leads to piracy — and that's a fact. This is regardless of "good" intentions and not everyone share the same. It results to indirectly promoting the act in the end.

It's not about who the "villains" are. We should be looking into repercussions and the damages it might/will have, and maybe what (or who) triggered this in the first place.

Hacking (by people who actually know what they're doing) for the intention of actually pirating is another discussion entirely.

Nintendo should drop the BAN hammer hard. It is perfectly okay in my view to cheat in single player games, have fun and do whatever you like. But when you cheat and ruin other people's experience in a multiplayer game, you are literally scum and deserve to be banned.

If hackers gotta hack, leave the rest of us out of it. Hacking during online play sessions is about as low as you can get.

Here's the full story:

@Jop "How is swapping models harmless?" I mean offline. Nobody is getting hurt by the actions of someone in his Switch, as long as it doesn't affect other switches.

"How are ROM-dumps not piracy?" They are not piracy as long as you don't put it on the internet.

And in order to even dump the ROM you need both the console and the game.

@Zyph I don't disagree, my problem with pullmyfinger's comment is that he is saying emulation is all about piracy, but emulation is only used by piracy.

I don't disagree with your comment at all, but unfortunately, not everyone has the skills to make an emulator themselves. It's probably much harder than making a game.

@MimoDX2 I get you. But sadly these days majority of people use it primarily for piracy. I understand both sides of the argument.

Regarding coding emulators yourself, yeah of course it's not easy. I'm saying it's just an option out of [I guess a few] others.

Bottomline is that both sides have a point. But I wouldn't blame other people from thinking that hack tools or emulators are, at the least, mostly used for piracy.

@BigKing

Really?

Amiga floppy copies - piracy
SNES Floppy ROM ripper - piracy
PS1 modchips - Piracy
Dreamcast ROM burning - piracy
PSP CFW - piracy
PS3 CFW - piracy
Wii home brew channel - piracy
DS R4 Cartridge- piracy

Did I miss something? There may be a few white hats who want to run their own home brew apps but the majority of console hacks are simply there for people to play downloaded or copied ROMs.

@pullmyfinger Emulators are not all about stealing content. They can easily be used for CD media that you own as well as backups of games that you bought. In the case of emulated games that are sold on the eshop, those are games that you pay for the right to own.

I hope that things like this one will make the online subscription a failure. I really hope that Nintendo will not be able to solve those issues, so not just people like me bvut those who like to play online too will be mad and enraged against it when they will be forced to pay to have a bad service. I'm sorry it is unfair for people interested in multiplayer, but Nintendo is the one who started doing unfair things, and the more people mad at them about this service the better for me, I'm just being honest about how I feel, sorry guys...

@Yosher Hacking was very much a thing pre-Wii in the form of Action Replay, Game Shark and Game Genie, but none of the games were online back then, so if you cheated against someone in Mario Party 3, ya got slugged by everyone on the couch with you. Wish I could give these jerks a good one-two myself.

@frogopus I dont believe this has been mentioned but servers can run anti cheat measures (like VAC) this is often a game of cat and mouse BUT if Nintendo banned hackers it would essentially block the Switch from playing online which is a much bigger risk to a potentially hacker than having to set up a new account.

@Gold_Ranger
I think you'll find the correct term is 'cheat'.

@RadioHedgeFund Dreamcast is homebrew heaven, even Sega put some secrets in for he Homebrew community(Megadrive emulator, Puyo Puyo homescreen). Games are still being released. Xbox had Xbox Media Center other platforms had tons of unofficial translation and undubbing/uncensoring patches and so on.

And you're still missing the point: you think hackers are learning their skills from playing pirates games all day? Hell no, they hack all they. It are the other people who profit off it and play the pirates games. They usually just do it for the sports.

@BigKing the Dreamcast has a hidden MEGA DRIVE EMULATOR?!?

Why am I only hearing about this now?

@RadioHedgeFund Nope, but around the time the Dreamcast was discontinued, Sega released Sega Smash Pack which contained instructions for Echelon (the most popular release group) on how to use the emulator for other roms.

Read this, it's one of the most heartwarming things you will read
http://dcemulation.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=97250

Nintendo needs to lock this down now, it will only get worse.

@Stocksy so then how do you test stages on production systems then? release it unfinished?

Hacking is very bad news if it created an uneven playing field, This could ruin online play in multiple games, I hope Nintendo can get a hold on it.

Ok I think these guys are bad and they shouldn’t do this, but I think it WOULD be fine if this was a private battle. And I also think that taking LEGAL ACTION is a bit extreme, there is no law against this so they can’t be sued, if this WAS the case then it would be illegal to modify literally anything to make it do what it wasn’t originally intended to do.

I think hacking in splatoon is fine as long as it's in private battles and is for fun. If you use it for an unfair advantage and mow down the enemy team then that's crossing the line

Once, people forced me and my team to play Skipper Pavillion a few hours before launch. Also, they all somehow hacked a infinite ink armour XD

@Stocksy when your playing competivily and expecting one level and one game type then you get a level you never played before and a game type you werent expecting thats the problem

@LuckyLand your a idiot with that thinking... your acting like nintendo has to give online play away for free... and your acting like nintendo hasnt been saying since the release they were going to charge....also its freaking 20$ for the year suck it up and stop complaining you whiny little baby....its one thing if you dont wanna play online but to hope the vast majority of people have a bad experience so you can save 20$ is just freaking selfish....yes they should deal with but at the same time its only 20$ im sure everyone on here over the age of 16 can get 20$ to play for the year online...im so sick of spoiled brats complaining about the online charging when all the other systems do it and charge way more...yes thier services are more fleshed out but still its only 20$

@SimonMKWii so you let a friend trick you into running hacked software...first lesson anytime someone says "trust me it will be ok" thats conman speak for run for the hills cause im setting you up for the blame...

I wonder when the criminalization of this goes into effect in Japan? Could get interesting.

Also "crackers, not hackers". That ship sailed 20 years ago. It sank.

@Almighty-Koz you are the spoiled idiot. Nintendo has no right to force people to pay a subscription and expecially they have no right to force you to pay to backup your save files!!!
I have been able to give up on the games I wanted so much and boycott Nintendo because they treated me like crap, you are the one paying a subscription not me, you are the spoiled brat not me... and YOU are the idiot since you think Nintendo has the right to treat customers this way.
You Nintendo slaves should really try to play a bit more on computers instead of on consoles. You will understand how bad your console manufacturers tyrants treat you.
You would see who is the idiot then.

@LuckyLand so your problem isnt with nintendo it with all consoles...then why bother coming to us lowly console users and leave your ivory tower of 2k$ gaming rigs to troll us...how bout you just live your life and not try to push you pc master race STUFF.....

@Almighty-Koz my problem is with saves backups and virtual console games not available for purchase anymore but only playable with the subscription.
Multiplayer is garbage for my taste I don't care about it.
Nintendo is the only one that is trying to force me to pay to keep my save files backups and that is not allowing me to buy certain games.
On the other consoles this don't happen.
So if you really want to compare Nintendo to other consoles, Nintendo is worse, it is more unfair to its customers and this is something they never talked about before the launch. They made it seems like the online subscription was going to have exclusive bonuses while actually they just took away things that should be available for everybody to make them available only to subscribers.
This is not a bonus, this is treating customers like crap.
I loved Nintendo and hated computers before the Switch, but with the Switch they forced me to open my eyes about how exploitative consoles can become.
Believe me this is something I would have never wanted to understand back then. But now I think that in the end it is the better thing for me and for anybody else who don't want to become as helpless as one can be on consoles when they decide they want to exploit you.

PS: my computer is 7 years old, I only spent 900 euro to buy it and it still can run any game available for it (except broken games like GFWL games for example, but this is a problem of those particular games not of the computer itself). And also my favourite Nintendo games with Dolphin (Wii and Gamecube games are way better than Switch games). PC gaming is not that expensive anymore.
Oh and I own all my favourite Nintendo games I also still have my Wii and recently I hooked it up again because I really love it so I'm not talking about piracy here just to make it clear.

@LuckyLand Dude, if you don't like Nintendo anymore or consoles anymore, then why are you here on this site? Just to whine and complain like a spoiled brat?

Your attitude isn't acceptable because you think Nintendo and other companies that make consoles are treating their fans like dirt because of online services you hate. You must have some problems, man.

@Alantor28 yes of course I have problems. I have the problems Nintendo caused me (and every other customer as well) to make it look like things that should be available to everybody are a special bonus included in their subscription.

@LuckyLand Has look that indicates he's not conviced and thinks LuckyLand is pulling stuff from his behind. It's not Nintendo that is causing you problems, rather it's your attitude that's causing you problems as well as whining, complaining and pulling stuff out of your behind.

@Alantor28 I have spent my money to buy the Switch at launch and for about one entire year they absolutely did not made it clear what they wanted to do with the online subscription (the only thing that was clear it was that you had to pay if you wanted to play online and I was like "Lol who cares? I hate online gaming anyway! Lol lol lol"), most of my all time favourite games are Nintendo games and I would like to continue playing their games (even if in my opinion their absolute best was during the Gamecube and Wii era, their games are still very good today even if not as good as they were back then imo) so I think I have 1) valid reasons and 2) lkegitimate rights to complain.
I am also boycotting them and not buying games that I would like to buy (like Smash Bros Ultimate for example) so I'm not just complaining, I am also doing something.
You can dislike what I say as much as you want but it is my right to complain, if you don't like it you can keep pulling 20$ out of your pocket to have the privilege to be mistreated by Nintendo every year. I don't approve that but at least I save my 20 euro to actually buy something better than that.

@LuckyLand Man, you're full of it.