HBO Now comes to Xbox One with just days to spare before Game of Thrones premiere

By Kris Wouk April 21, 2016

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The sixth season premiere of Game of Thrones is only days away, and while there are more ways than ever to watch without a cable subscription, there is still a reason that it’s the most pirated show on television: HBO’s standalone streaming app, HBO Now, is still only available on a handful of platforms.

If you’re an Xbox One or Xbox 360 owner who has been fretting over the premiere, worry no longer, as today HBO Now finally became available on the consoles. Unlike HBO Go, which has been available on the Xbox One since 2014, HBO Now doesn’t require a cable subscription.

As with the app on other platforms, HBO Now will cost you $15 per month. That said, if you’re trying to download the app right now, it might seem a bit pricier. Some users are seeing a price of $400 that persists even through checkout, as Gamespot reports. This is likely just an early placeholder price and other users have been able to download the app just fine, so if you encounter the problem, simply waiting and trying again should resolve it.

HBO Now on Xbox One — Image used with permission by copyright holder

This makes the Xbox One the first current-generation game console to receive HBO Now. The PlayStation 4 offers the HBO Go app, but not HBO Now. So far, there is no word on when — or if — the app will arrive on the PS4, but it seems likely that it will make its way there eventually.

HBO Now launched on the Apple TV and iOS devices in March of last year. Since then, it has expanded to Android and Amazon Kindle, as well as Roku, Chromecast, and Amazon Fire TV devices.

Game of Thrones season six begins this Sunday, April 24, and it’s not alone. HBO’s Silicon Valley season three and Veep season five kick off on the same day.

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Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…

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