Microsoft temporarily suspends Sky Player for Xbox 360
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted Oct 28th 2009 9:52AM
posted Oct 28th 2009 9:52AM
"Very fast," "a dream," "fantastic." It looks like you can add "on hiatus" to the list of superlatives -- at least for the time being. That boffo Sky Player that Microsoft debuted for the Xbox 360? "Suspended." Why, you ask? "Due to an unforeseen technical issue." Luckily for Britons and ex-pats, the £15 monthly service should resume tomorrow, barring any further technical issues. In the meantime, it looks like the poor avatar above will be stuck watching Benny Hill on Netflix like the rest of us. Statement after the break.
Microsoft Statement on Sky Player for Xbox 360
The Sky Player on Xbox 360 service did successfully launch early this morning, it has subsequently been suspended due to an unforeseen technical issue. With so much excitement and interest in the service, we'd much prefer to ensure that our customers enjoy the highest possible quality of service. We would like to take this opportunity to apologise to our customers who have attempted to access the service today. Sky Player engineers are hard at work to resolve the problem - we expect to have the full service available tomorrow.
Ah, but you forget, we don't get Netflix in the UK.
Maybe that avatar could play a game, on his games console, just saying.
This doesn't look as impressive as 360 games do. I'm amazed at how much m,ore primitive it looks than HOME, for example. I don't like Home either, but I thought the PS3 and 360 were equals technically... and this seems to show they aren't even in the same generation,.
Who said proxy?
@Gimboa: Don't confuse the hardware's capabilities with what the software's actually getting out of it. Sure you may think this looks a little primitive, but 360 games can and do look as good as PS3 ones (better, in some cases, due to it outspeccing the PS3 in some areas, while the PS3 does the same thing in other areas, so really it depends what you're wanting to do with it).
I think the style of this thing is a deliberate decision so that it all fits nicely with the style of the 360's avatars. Besides, once you're watching something fullscreen, who cares whether it can show reflections of it in real time in the tears in your avatar's eyes (automatically generated by watching you have a sniffle during the emotional moments)? It's a video player, for crying out loud.
Isn't Sky player a UK service ? If so we won't be watching anything on Netflix since it's a US service.
we don't get netflix over here
Thank you, been racking my brains trying to figure out a way round!
For those that managed to download, install and use the Sky Player before it was pulled, it's still possible to get access to it using the Latest Downloads tab on the 'Quick Launch' menu - and it works perfectly well, thank you very much :)
its wednesday, 14:00 GMT and still no sky player. maybe we will get another press release today saying that full service will resume ..... tomorrow.
Good thing I didn't make my U.K account yet....
Ugh...always with the Benny Hill! Did anyone in the UK ever actually watch Benny Hill?
Not if we can help it
Not since the 1970s; I'll bet most British Engadget readers were not even born when Benny Hill was last on the tv in UK, there's not even any cable/satellite channels that rum these ancient shows.
(BSOD) Blue Sky Of Death?
i c wut u did thur.. n iz not funny.
You are both getting down ranked (marky-b probably more).
Also, kind of wish they would bring some sort of live streaming state side, even if it was just hulu.
More like legal conditions, which is why they do not offer IPTV on the platform in the USA. Oh, they were, but then they got into trouble (contractual) for attempting to compete with a partner. I bet that same partner is trying to keep them from sourcing from abroad.
Rumor? Hmm. :)
Check out PlayOn for Hulu streaming on the 360. I've been using it successfully for ages. You can try before you buy too. I'll be pissed off if Hulu goes paid though, as I don't use any of the other PlayOn features.
Hi all,
I am from the UK and have an english Xbox live account but have just moved to Austria. Will this work? I would love to have sky here. Thanks.
I hope so... I'm in Switzerland with a UK account.. we can't rent movies, can't play 1vs100, so I doubt this will work outside the UK.
My advice to you is order a Freesat box from the UK and get a satellite dish set up - the satellite in question broadcasts to Austria as well, I think. I have it here.
It appears as though it's back now. It's back in the video marketplace section at least, but i don't know if its because i downloaded the player before it was pulled.
i just managed to download it, but it throws up random error codes whenever i try to use it.
I would love to be albe to use this in the states that way I could get the British feeds of all the soccer matches instead of the shitty US feeds.
That screenshot looks like Microsoft Bob 2.0.
My friends got it to work now, I'moved from the Netherlands to UK 1,5 years ago, but i have a dutch gamertag is it possible to download/watch it or not.
thanks in advantage
Well. My feckin XBOX is still in limbo after the latest update as it just tries to upload the latest update, but wont upload it for some reason. And MS doesnt do nothing about it.
Let's just see what tomorrow brings. If MS won't help me, sending a whole article about the limbo to Engadget, maybe they'll notice me?
It is a bad news for those Sky users, When it come back for us ( I just replace my xbox battery in http://www.battery4.us/ )
Wel im been waiting since tuesday and no sign of sky player on xbox just an apolgies for delay message in the inside xbox dasdbroad i live in birmingham have live gold membership and sky sub.......but stil waitnig its launch does any one wen we will get it birmingham yardley wood area plus readers sky movies goes free from 6:00pm tonite until sunday so u can enjoy the full experience only if you have it that is..........any one out there with any info would be grateful to you too share with me thankz.