Why Was Super Mario Maker Offline This Week? An Exploit

This week Super Mario Maker mysteriously went offline for "emergency maintenance", a sudden but unexplained move that left many Nintendo fans twiddling their thumbs while waiting for service to return. Thanks to Kotaku's Patrick Klepek, we now know the reason behind this sudden plug pulling, and unsurprisingly, it was due to a major exploit.

As their report explains in further detail, a glitch was discovered that allowed players to essentially "hack" a level by introducing cheat items not originally included in the level's design. A sleuth by the name of Joseph discovered and tested the glitch and then reached out to Super Mario Maker streamer Matt “Jaku” Jakubowski to get word to Nintendo. Shortly after Jakubowski contacted Treehouse senior localization manager Nate Bihldorff on LinkedIn to alert him to the exploit, the emergency maintenance kicked in, and Super Mario Maker went offline for over 36 hours. It was expected to come back online this evening, but returned earlier than expected, and now neither Joseph nor Jakubowski can duplicate the trick, confirming that Nintendo has fixed it with this latest update.

If you own Super Mario Maker, the game is now back online, and mercifully, without a record-ruining exploit. Be sure to read Kotaku's full report to get all the details on how this story emerged.