Some Xbox One owners keen for backwards compatibility have been duped into bricking their consoles by a prank that originated on 4chan.

On Saturday a user of 4chan's infamous /b/ forum posted what he or she claimed were the steps required to make the Xbox One backwards compatible.

One of the steps involves accessing the recently-discovered hidden developer menu on the console.

However, following all the steps results in the console locking up completely.

Xbox community manager Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb quickly took to Twitter to warn people about the post.

“To be clear there is no way to make your Xbox One backwards compatible and performing steps to attempt this could make your console inoperable,” he said.

In September, Microsoft senior director Albert Penello said that Microsoft might offer backwards compatibility in the future through a cloud gaming system.

The 4chan post: