Sky Player issues down to "demand"

By Tom Bramwell Published 29 October, 2009

See! It's your fault for being so eager!

Microsoft and Sky have said that problems with Sky Player on Xbox 360 were down to "phenomenal demand" and that the service is now being rolled out bit by bit to stop the whole thing cocking up again.

"Sky Player on Xbox 360 launched on Tuesday 27th October and was met with phenomenal demand, with many tens of thousands of customers attempting to sign up within the first hour of launch," the companies said in a statement.

"Unfortunately due to the unprecedented levels of simultaneous demand, we did not have the capacity to satisfy all service requests and therefore temporarily suspended all access to the service.

"Today, the rollout will be implemented in phases to ensure that consumers experience both a smooth sign-up process and high-quality experience. We apologise to all customers that have not been able to experience Sky Player on Xbox 360, we assure them that this is being rectified and we thank them for their patience."

And there you were thinking all you had to moan about was the extortionate pricing! Silly you.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • GamerG #1 2 years ago

    It started working for me last night, the quality is pretty good as is the range of programs, unfortunatly I have realised my plan to have a 2nd 360 in my room with sky on wont really work as I would have to keep moving my profile between the two machines and wouldn't be able to have both on at the same time.

    However if you dont have your 360 in your front room but have Sky in the front room you can upgrade your sky package by £5 enabling you to watch Sky Sports etc on your 360 which seems pretty reasonable to me (you dont ned to pay the £5 if you have multiroom or sky broadband)

  • mcmonkeyplc #2 2 years ago

    Me thinks sky fucked up here. Surely MS know the number of live users in the uk and can guess max demand?

  • woodnotes #3 2 years ago

    It's completely up for me. But STILL no US drama - No Fringe, House, etc, and yet they are all on the PC Sky Player.

  • GamerG #4 2 years ago

    I think that they have a guess at long term usage but forget about everyone wanting to try it out day 1

  • Vortex808 #5 2 years ago

    I still don't have access to this yet and my sky broadband connection's really poor just now its more than halved in the last week or so. Anyone else having the same issue as everything seems to be working as before?

    Not sure if it's related to extra servers being required for this or not, but i hope the speed comes back up a bit before MW2 is out! Otherwise, i'll be getting massacred most online games....

  • joe90 #6 2 years ago

    Can you actually download the software again now?

  • GamerG #7 2 years ago

    @joe90

    they are rolling it out so you may be able to

  • Spydy #8 2 years ago

    Let's hope demand doesn't spoil MW2. I know it's a seperate system, but I'm beginning to worry.

  • dupplawt #9 2 years ago

    It's highly unlikely MW2 will suffer from server issues - the amount of pre-orders it has probably only accounts for 1/3 of of sales in the first week, and the game is so eagerly anticipated that they probably have more than enough to cope!

  • SirDespard #10 2 years ago

    Really? As it got taken down before most people got home from work I'm not convinced that demand is the reason. Sure it's half term week for a lot of the UK, but even still...

  • actionfitz #11 2 years ago

    "And there you were thinking all you had to moan about was the extortionate pricing! Silly you. "

    +1
    hehehe

  • Retroid #12 2 years ago

    When I couldn't log in last night on the 360 I couldn't log in to the website either, so it was Sky's end on that at least.

    Also: I'm not sure if certain US TV shows being missing is because some of us have PCs set up as the primary user for Sky Player, I'm sure it mentioned something about restrictions....

  • schnide #13 2 years ago

    Only when you put Microsoft and Sky in bed together could you possibly have PR that tells us it's all our fault.

    (Not that I'll be getting into bed with both of them, mind).

  • HonestJoe #14 2 years ago

    Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere but what's the quality like? I live in an area where obstructions block the satellite signal and there's no cable so am keen to try this potential solution.

  • irve77 #15 2 years ago

    Well , i've got a one trial of live to use and already have Sky .. so i'm looking forward to giving this a go .. who knows ... if it all works well i might just subscribe to live on a perm basis

  • systems #16 2 years ago

    It's not as if Sky and Microsoft are large corporations who could plan for this large amount of customers adequately. Ah...

  • PoundHound #17 2 years ago

    I couldn't get on last night either, but I could look at the previews etc and I was very impressed. The range of programmes was much larger than I expected and, if the little 3 minute preview things are anything to go by, the quality is very good.

    I understand why some people may knock the service, but as a Sky/Gold subscriber, this will really come in handy from time to time, especially as it is at no extra cost to me. My wife often records 2 things at once which rules out watching the T.V, but now I can Sky Player instead, which is nice.

    I would like to know how the roll-out is working. Is it regional? Is there any point trying again tonight?

  • GamerG #18 2 years ago

    @ HonestJoe

    surprisingly decent, the picture is as good as terrestial signal looks on my 46" TV (terrestial doesn't fair too well blown up) however the frame rate isn't as good

    Its noticible on things like the scrolling banner on Sky news mainly which doesn't move smoothly across the screen however the quality is miles better than when I blew up the England Ukraine game to full screen on my TV from my laptop.
    Edited by 2 at 29/10/09 @ 12:25

  • Emmit_Assassin #19 2 years ago

    Unprecedented demand? Come on...

    They know full well that there will be a high number of people wanting to try the system out, even if they don't end up using it.

    I heard a few eager fiddlers found out how to get Sky for free, and it wasn't something the techies had thought of, so they pulled it before anyone else got it for free.
    How pissed would MS and Sky be about people getting Sky for free? Pissed enough to pull it until they'd patched it, I'd say.
    If I'm right, then there will be an immediate patch for those who managed to download it before it was pulled.

  • Stiggy #20 2 years ago

    I was very surprised on the quality although the refesh issues make pans/scrolls very jerky. It would be a perfectly useable solution for a 2nd room but since News Corp are involved, it has to be castrated by an unrealistic pricing plan. As a Sky HD subscriber with only kids and enterntainment packages, I can get next to nothing on it and am expected to pay almost a £1 for "on demand" (read: repeated on Sky One everyday with a Y in it). FGS, let me have Live TV for ALL channels and I might be interested.

  • Quixz #21 2 years ago

    So frustrating i really wanted to test this out..

  • davisorle #22 2 years ago

    I have to admit i didnt expect such demand of it but then again wee dont have Sky here in greece and i was counting on a few comments on ppls' reactions and in here its full of fanboys so thats my fault. So glad for the ones that get the option but Sky has never been in Greece so ill google this thing right now. Even though i already have all the channels i need, you never know if i find it convenient for me too ( I dont have time for TV in general.. )

  • Shikasama #23 2 years ago

    Im actually suprised at the number of people who have signed up for it, what with it being a massive rip off and everything.

  • Harmonica #24 2 years ago

    Anyone with two 360s in different rooms: can't you stick your profile on a memory card, and just stick that in the other machine when you want to play downstairs?