Wii Homebrew Channel development shuts down over ‘stolen’ code

The GitHub repository for The Homebrew Channel (HBC), a popular piece of software used on hacked Nintendo Wiis, has been archived. Its maintainers are accusing the creators of “libogc,” a software toolkit HBC relies on, of stealing both Nintendo-made and open-source code and presenting it as their own, according to a ReadMe posted to the repository yesterday by hacking group fail0verflow. (Hat tip to X user OatmealDome.)

HBC is a central piece of the Wii homebrew community, serving as a launcher for non-Nintendo-approved software without needing to re-run an exploit. Through it, you can do things like load GameCube and Wii game files, run older console emulators, and more from a USB-connected hard drive or the Wii’s SD card slot. HBC is also one of the cleanest ways to back up your own Wii or GameCube collection, as you can copy files from game discs using Nintendo’s own hardware.

In its ReadMe, fail0verflow, which owns the HBC repository, writes that although they knew early on that libogc used some stolen Nintendo code, they thought much of the rest of it was original code and decided to “reluctantly” continue using it. However, they say that after another developer claimed the code was actually lifted from the open-source RTEMS without attribution, they filed an issue that libogc’s developers closed and replied to with “verbal abuse” to before deleting it. HBC’s developers say they now “consider it impossible to legally and legitimately compile this software at this point, and cannot encourage any further development.”

WiiHacks, one of the most well-made guides for hacking a Wii, still seems to offer all of the file downloads needed to hack a Wii. But as GameRant notes, that could change, particularly with the HBC developers admitting that some Nintendo code was used in the tooling it relies on. Nintendo has been known to go after emulation projects in the past, after all. If you’ve already hacked a Wii, none of this will matter much. HBC itself hasn’t had any major updates for years — just don’t count on any persistent bugs going away anytime soon, if ever.