HBO's Max Rebrand Launch Didn't Go as Planned

HBO Max, now rebranded arsenic Max, had a less-than-ideal motorboat connected Tuesday, pinch galore subscribers reporting ongoing issues pinch nan app. The problems whitethorn person stemmed from Max creating an wholly caller app, alternatively than simply renaming its existing one, and galore subscribers were displeased, saying they couldn’t log successful aliases that nan app had wholly crashed.

The outages were reported successful nan early greeting connected Downdetector pinch complaints ranging from a lag successful video streaming to subtitles not matching nan scene. Others reported they could watch trailers but not nan TV show aliases movie, person caller 60-second commercials erstwhile they effort to stream, and surface blackouts that allowed them to perceive nan audio but person nary picture.

Max did not instantly respond to Gizmodo’s petition for comment, but a spokesperson told ABC News, “You must ever expect issues connected a tech rollout of this scale. We tin stock that only insignificant ones person emerged and were quickly remedied.” The outlet, which published nan communicative successful nan morning, said nan spokesperson responded 15 minutes later, saying Max was not down. But that didn’t extremity immoderate subscribers from still experiencing various issues passim nan day. Some users besides reported receiving an correction connection successful nan precocious evening telling them Max isn’t disposable successful their region.

Subscribers took to Twitter to kick astir nan correction message, pinch 1 personification tweeting: “Let maine get this straight. We salary for HBO Max, but now that it is conscionable @StreamOnMax our location is abruptly nary longer successful a region that streams Max? (Last clip I looked our condo is still successful nan US of A.)”

The streaming work has not provided instructions connected really to hole nan problem, nor has it posted a finite solution connected its site, if anything, it makes nan switch much complicated, not less. On its site, Max says if subscribers person a connection saying nan app isn’t disposable successful their region, they should travel 4 steps including unblocking nan IP address, restarting nan web device, contacting their net work provider, and arsenic a last-ditch effort, interaction Max.

Max’s preamble of a wholly different app near nary guidance for subscribers, saying successful a press release that a “large portion” of subscribers’ apps will beryllium automatically updated to Max, while others will person a punctual to download nan app. Speaking from firsthand experience, nary specified punctual consistently exists.

The mobility remains whether subscribers will carnivore pinch Max arsenic it useful to debug its system, while nan institution simultaneously says location aren’t immoderate bugs to fix. Echoing nan disdain for nan rebrand, 1 personification tweeted: “I clicked connected nan app and it said “We’re sorry, HBO Max is not disposable successful your region,” and alternatively of downloading a caller app I’m gonna watch thing else, acknowledgment Warner brothers.”