[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!
I believed it all night after seeing the news yesterday. Nice touch with the add-on, I tried and tried to install it last night.
Happy April 1st everyone!!
Very well thought out and played!!!!
The Rick Astley video is a nice touch too… :S
“Sony’s impeccable reputation in tech crowds”
oh, yeah, never mind…</raised eyebrows)
:-) Nicely done!
i found the plugin it is just a music video of “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley you all have been rickrolled! LOL
Maaaaan you guys did good with this one! Had me convinced really well! Happy April Fools Day!
iRoNBiLL
I AM SO MAD RIGHT NOW
Damn you got me…I read the headline out loud to my girlfriend and she just said “believe me, you’ll have to pay for future versions” and I was like never! Then I read the news and it…yeah, realy made me said and angry. ESPECIALLY because I thought my girlfriend was right! I didn’t got it until I downloaded the new blu-ray add-on…you made my day with this one :D
Good one, I had me fooled for a minute there. Closed source XBMC? I have too much faith in you guys to believe that :)
Oh you got me good.. glad I waited to read the comments before I started hacking at my wrists.
You bastards!! ! You had me! Awesome joke. For a few seconds there I was on the verge of uninstalling XBMC and downloading MediaPortal.
You, beest April-Fool I had, today!
too funny…you guys will be buying Sony one day!
@Hamid
April fooooooooooooooooooooooooooool
Very well played. The more I read through the article, the more I hated you guys :)
‘DRM is the way of the future’
Tell me a little puff of smoke didn’t rise from your keyboard after typing in that phrase. ;)
Had me almost to the end of the post.
Happy AFD!
@Hamid
APRIL FOOL MAN Chill
I really need to remember the date today. Heh, this is the second huge april fools joke I fell for today.
U got me :) was upset to say d least
hahahahaha
JERKS!!!! i hate april fools
aw man, I hate you guys. First april fools gag that actually got me.
Hmm, I wonder how many users XBMC will loose because of this joke :(
I get that it is April’s foolsday but not everyone will get that :(
I suggest that you retract this news post on April 2nd exlaining that.
Nice. For about 10 seconds, I was unbelievably pissed off. I actually flipped off the screen hahahaha
The phrase “going forward” really got my back up. I thought, “here we go – business speak. Xbmc is doomed”. Then is started reading about how good Sony was then I caught on. V good.
Yeah! you had me!!!!!!! I was starting to get mad, and thinking in burn my current installer to keep it for years, until i read comments and understand this holiday! (on december 28th in my country) guys your rocks! again! best!!!
feckers got me good…..lol
Obligitory Trollolololololol
Haha, I totally thought you guys had sold out. I even downloaded the plugin and thought “oh well, at least we get some free movies”, even though I wondered how they could offer something like that and was surprised Sony would agree to it, and then when I played the first video I LOL’ed :-D
Wow… first ps3hax now this. Don’t I look like the fool?… an APRIL fool as it may.. AH? ah?? ahhh…
Oh man. Good joke. I will say this though, had sony done it, I wouldn’t of been mad. You all deserve to be millionaires. As long as you keep letting me download this app and and provide my own content, I would say good luck and keep the improvements coming. On that note, I dont agree with the way boxee is handling themselves as they strip more and more out of the pc install. The Mozilla code base for web streaming should of stayed.
I was believing it until “DRM is the way of the future”.
Good one, happy April 1st
Dude, you killed me rotten. My pulse was in the 180’s…. then I saw the free movies and that made me rage even more. “Free movies??/ WTheF cares about 10 free movies?!?!”
Great April Fool’s. It was the only one that got me today!
plain and simple “I love you guys” this was awsome
I was excited (hoping for a Boxee/Dlink style hookup) at first… then I thought of the irony of the Xbox Media Center project ending up on PS3s and not Xbox 360s… then skipped everything after the first paragraph and remembered what day it was.
Bob Dole didn’t fall for this, Bob Dole’s Been up all night waiting for a good joke to come out. I… errr Bob Dole meant to say Bob Dole… DID have to ask his wife Elizabeth Dole what a DRM was, which she replied to with the statement “WTF?!? gtfo ya lame duck!” but Bob Dole has no idea what that means either, so he ignored her, popped a viagra, and took a long nap.
– Bob Dole Forgot what the message was, but he still approves of it
hey now, I still live in my parents’ basement!!! I take offense to that:-p But anywho, I seriously was up ALL NIGHT, and starting @ 12:00, was looking for good april fools’ jokes. Apparently I’m the only one who didn’t fall for it??? wowzers:-)
I saw the update on my ipod touch, via the RSS feed reader. I KNEW it was a joke, just cuz NO-ONE releases ANYTHING meaningful on April 1st!
Die, you greedy scum! Pandering to Sony like good corporate whores! Oh!……wait. It’s April 1st. NEVERMIND! Better than Googles’ fake app joke.
This did it for me…
So.. I get through the first line and I’m like.. Definite April Fools. Then reading the comments I decided to take this golden opportunity to teach my wife what it means to be RickRoll’d… “Hey babe, check out the new addon on XBMC. You can stream Sony movies in Blu Ray quality.” ::Wait for it:: “What the eff is this!?!? This is NOT black swan!”
@jC!
Nearly had a heart attack… for about a minute, then I realised it must be a friggin MEAN and NASTY joke … Good one though! :) :)
I knew it from the firtst line.. April fool!
First I must say Thank you…. I laughed my ass off, I cant believe I forgot it was April 1st. today. Well played.
The Boxee nightmare started flashing before my eyes as I read this, haha. NOOOOOOOOOOO! Scary, Mean, Good Joke.
OK … OK … you got me … you got me.
My mouth was open … my mouth was open.
HA, HA … very funny m_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ !!!
Your mother got a wooden leg for a kickstand!
( full credit goes to Eddie Murphy’s Delirious script for that excerpt )
:P
guhhh
This got me. I feel so dumb. So glad it’s not true.
You had simeon hope untill up said drm is the future
You had me until the tech crowds comment considering what GeoHot is currently going through. Good game XBMC. I consider myself beat. :P
lmao hilarious
My jaw, just hit the floor!!! You guy’s got me on this one. Since I’m from other country, it took me a few minutes to realice the joke. Good one.
I HATE APRIL !! i kicked the cat in furry after reading this