[April Fool's Day] Partnership with Sony, Movie streaming Add-on unveiled
Today we are proud to announce an exciting new partnership.
In early May 2010, a representative at Sony Japan’s Home Theater and Console division expressed interest in using XBMC as a delivery platform for its newest content. After nearly a year of development, we have delivered a product that is suitable for deployment into millions of living-rooms, backed by Sony’s reputation for delivering high-quality standards-compliant hardware and software. We believe that within 3 months, we will have a new appliance on store shelves that will revolutionize the industry. The XBMC team is also excited to be a part of Sony’s Home Theater and Consoles division, where free-thinking developers are regarded highly.
What does this mean for XBMC? The sky is the limit. Combined with Sony’s impeccable reputation in tech crowds, we anticipate that the platform will be a quick success in the retail market. Sadly, the XBMC source will be closed in the future (all developers unanimously agreed to assigning a proprietary license), but we believe this is the right move going forward. As Jonathan Marshall, XBMC Foundation President put it, “While the free and open-source model worked well when we were all still in our parents’ basements, now that we’ve been showered with gifts from our new friends at Sony, we understand that it is not sustainable in the long-term; DRM is the way of the future.”
Top 10
We realize that some may see this as abandoning our principles, so we have used our new partner’s influence to secure a special treat for XBMC’s existing users. For the next year, we are able to bring you the latest box-office top-10 movies in 1080p quality, some before the Blu-Rays even hit the store shelves. The best part is, they are free of charge! Just check out the ‘Blu-Ray Movie Streamer’ plugin, available now in the XBMC add-on browser.
We understand that not everyone will agree with our decision here, but we assure you, it’s for the best. Stay tuned for more as the details unfold!
well played guys, I can see alot of forum posts about this lol.
So that’s why the dev’s have been on hiatus from the forums. Sucking up to big $$$. Hobby, GPL my A$$.
‘Partnership with Sony’ is as fa as i read. sig, now i have to get another media centre as the one i love sold out. reminds me of my apple. fml
I nearly made it through the entire day with out getting caught, then at 10:36 PM XBMC dropped a bomb on me that nearly ruined my day. I was tricked hook, line, and sinker. Crazy…….
relax guys, its an april’s fool joke
I figured it was an AF Joke… I am not a favor of AF and never have been. I get enough daily lies from my government and msm to keep me entertained. Oh well.. It was a good one though…
scared the living hell out of me lmao, well played
Well played. You get my heart racing, and I was about to call the white coats out for the developers. Being April 2 here, when the post went up, it did not dawn on me that it was an April Fool’s joke, until I remembered the time change. Even here in Japan, Sony is the evil empire.
Awesome April fools rick roll.
Nice one guys.
Slightly dissapointed though, as I would far sooner have seen The Fighter than watch Rick Astley and his dodgy 80’s hair, (yes, I DID download the plugin, even though I did think the ‘DRM’ statement was slightly odd).
Keep up the good work.
HA! nice AF.. Got me for a few minutes.. Until i read the part about all devs agreeing on a proprietry license :)
Nice one – I have to admit it, with sinking heart I bought it hook line and sinker. I was seething quietly about you being a bunch of… well you get the idea, then I noticed the logo was xmbc, and thought ‘hang on a mo’ and re-read it, noticed the date, and the penny droped.
Once you know, and think about it rather than just bouncing off the roof, it’s so full of sarcasm that I can’t believe I fell for it.
Nice one… but please don;t do it again – my blood presure can’t take it :)
Well done.
In deed, DRM is what the world needs.
We agree with this step into a better live.
Kisses from Japan
My heart stopped for a second or two…I must admit that after reading this I was feeling a little bit depressed, but fortunately that feeling was immediately transformed into joy when I realized that it was just an April’s fool joke!
What a relief!
I love you guys again. :D
Bought it, what a relief to see that it’s a gag and I’m not the only fool.
Got me too.
I just ate it!……. I just watched my first Bluray streaming movie on XBMC! and I almost smashed my PC on the ground! Thanks a lot for the shock guys………. :)
bloody mongrels scared the shit out of me :)
I cannot see any movie… only a stupid music video instead of… It’s a joke?!
Bastards!!!
Never gonna give you up either.
Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down. Shit, thought it was all over.
I was fuming then realised the date!!
All i could say was “man, boxee guys are gonna be pissed!!”
@Matt
THIS BETTER BE A JOKE.
I AM IN TEARS RIGHT NOW
You got me!!! well done! I was about to have a heart attack.
What a shock!! Just saw this news was 1st April.
Let the battle begin once Microsoft hears XBMC is being used by Sony as XB standing for x-box which is register to MS as it was original released for x-box users the war will be on, I would not want to be a part of that war. I’m sure Sony has thought of this already and has a new name lined up already.
Guess we will know what the new name will be once released, until then going back to my NPVR client on my ZBOX once good thing Live TV will be on my client again, also any new HW I’ve got to use with XBMC will work with NPVR under Win XP or Win 7. :-)
good luck is all I can say, been there done that already
fool day bomb….
U got me i was looking to say the App had the same video across the board and wasn’t working correctly. I fell hook line and sinker.
LOL, yo tambien me lo trague! saludos desde México! y que bueno que solo fue un chiste LOL
Lame joke…
wow, seriously got me. I came to the site to dld for the first time and almost clicked off of it instantly…. my jaw dropped and if not for wanting to read the 224 comments saying how you guys sucked, I wouldn’t have known it was an april fools joke.
well played
I get it, this was to distract us from the butt-ugly Motorola XBMC remote that was released today(pre-orders).
Nice try, I’m sure this will soften the blow of a remote offering that looks like it jumped out of 1960.
WOW, I feel stupid, it just clicked in and i told people i was so upset that the best media suite on the planet just caved and went to the man
nice one, hope that never actually comes true
Heh, I just downloaded the latest stable tarball and ran a git clone — just in case. Then I saw the comments link. Good one!
I almost started cussing here, than after reading others’ comments … came to chill myself. If that happened for real…. damn… screw.. “best things are free!” Well I admit it, for a moment I fell for it…. great mean joke though! Keep up the great work…. and please Stay Away from Sony :)
Well, If it definitly was a go with sony, i hated it but i still would support you guy’s.
Its the best prog. available :))) so… and you’ve earned it then because i use it so long now for free :)
NOT FUNNY!!!
I almost got a heart attack and started to download the source code…
This is the best open source project I ever saw. Special the graphic design is just unbelievable amazing!
Thanks and keep going with this work!
Duesentrieb66
Just got linked here from a comment on Engadget. It being April 6th now, I wasn’t in that ‘April Fools’ frame of mind and you b*stards totally got me for a minute haha :D
Tou-fucking-ché.
Well played. I love Sony and all but reading what was said annoyed me. Until I realised the date!
I too almost had a big cry at my desk when I read this only to then find it was a big joke…. im so happy i could cry… I guess the jist here guys is that im a big girls blouse :-) thanks for not selling out :-)
Great joke !!
I have only been using XBMC for 6 months now and absolutely love it, because I am not familiar with the community I bought the joke and felt really sad.
My first reaction was googling for community members embracing the source and continouing an XBMC Lite path.
Only when returning with no hits and reading the reactions did it dawn to me.
Good joke guys, now please dont mention DRM anymore.
Where the ‘Blu’ add-on? I can’t find it!!! …. Ooops… Hahahaha!