Nintendo removes indie game with hidden Ruby interpreter from Switch eShop

Nintendo has pulled the indie game A Dark Room from the Switch eShop after the developer announced that a Ruby interpreter was available in the game. The developer claims that he wanted to introduce people to coding and the interpreter couldn’t do much with it.

A Dark Room is a text-based RPG released for Nintendo Switch on April 12. On Thursday, April 25, developer Amir Rajan posted on the social network ruby.social, writing about the Ruby interpreter and code editor. To take advantage of the easter eggs, users had to connect a USB keyboard to the Switch and press the ~ key. Rajan writes that he has built in the features to bring “the magic of coding in its purest form” to users.

Around the weekend, Nintendo appears to have removed the game from the eShop, Eurogamer writes. Nintendo hasn’t commented on the incident yet, but it seems the two features are the reason. Publisher Circle Entertainment tells the site that it is aware that the game was removed from digital stores on April 26, but is not providing any further information about the issues, as the company is still in talks with Nintendo.

Rajan tells Eurogamer that he regrets his choice. “A simple sandboxed environment is now framed into a major exploit. I just wanted to introduce kids and adults to the joy of coding.” According to Rajan, it was also only possible to draw lines, squares and labels with Ruby and play sounds from A Dark Room. The interpreter was also able to register when a Joycon button was pressed. It was only possible to build apps based on those lines, squares and labels, says Rajan.

However, on Reddit, a Switch developer writes that the Ruby interpreter used contained vulnerabilities. For example, according to the developer, the interpreter made it possible to execute code in userland, a “necessary and critical step to increase the user’s privileges within the Switch”. This could eventually bypass the Switch drm.

Nintendo is wary of users who can bypass the console’s DRM, according to the reddit user. Therefore, the company would potentially fix vulnerabilities within the operating system as soon as possible and for this reason, for example, the Switch would not have an easily accessible web browser.

The Ruby interpreter as posted by ruby.social user Frinkel the Raccoon