Hackgroup WiiKey claims to have developed a method to play copied Wii-U games from a USB drive. The group gained access to the console by reverse engineering the DVD player, the disc encryption and the file-system.
Yesterday the group posted a statement on their website that says, "Yes, its real - we have now completely reversed the WiiU drive authentification [sic], disk encryption, file system, and everything else needed for this next generation K3y. Stay tuned for updates!"
This means that it's now possible to play Wii U games from a USB drive. The group plans to release an optical drive emulator for the Wii U. The emulator will run on Linux and compatible with both versions of the Wii U and it will play games of all regions.
Unfortunately there is no proof yet that the hack is real. The only proof available is a couple of hexadecimal lines of code which the hacking group published on their site. The emulator is also not available but as the group has also released Wii modchips it's very likely that the hack is real.It's already possible to play pirated games on the Wii U but making it possible to play it from an USB drive adds some additional convenience.
Nintendo has responded to the alleged hack by saying that the company is unaware that there are method to play pirated Wii U games.
