【2020 Archives】

It may020 Archivesa groundbreaking high-tech piece of TV entertainment, but the interactive Black Mirrormovie Bandersnatchis off limits if you happen to be using the highest-rated high-tech TV setup.

That would be the Apple TV, the 4K model of which we recently rated not only the most essential set-top box but also the most ahead-of-the-pack product Apple currently makes. (Many users agreed.)

Bandersnatchis also unavailable on Google's Chromecast and Amazon's Fire Stick. (Update: Netflix is at pains to point out that it will play on new versions of the Fire Stick, but hasn't said when the cutoff point is.) Try to watch it on these platforms and what you'll get instead of the two-plus hour storyline is a 2-minute supercut of Black Mirrorcharacters from other episodes saying "sorry." And if you thought you could stream it from other devices to these set-top boxes: Sorry, that won't work either.

But you're not necessarily banished to watching/playing it on your laptop, tablet, or phone. Bandersnatchwill work if you have a Roku, a relatively new smart TV, or a games console with Netflix. The company says it's confident most users will be able to see the story somehow, and lists Apple TV and Chromecast alongside "some legacy [ie. super old] devices" on which it will not work. Ouch.

Netflix is playing a little coy as to the exact reason why its interactive story technology works on Roku (which, if anything, is more of a legacy device than the more popular Apple TV and Chromecast) but not its rivals. The company told Mashable the problem had something to do with "support", but has not yet explained further. (We'll update you if they do.)

Other interactive services, such as HBO's Mosaic app, work fine on Apple TV. Perhaps Netflix hasn't got around to updating its Apple TV and Chromecast apps to support Twine, the open-source programming language in which Bandersnatchwas written.

Maybe it only had the resources to support a limited number of platforms and chose which ones it would service first almost at random -- or maybe CEO Reed Hastings has some behind-the-scenes beef with Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos and the Google guys.

At least Netflix was able to confirm that the problem had nothing to do with the Apple TV remote, which incorporates a trackpad rather than regular left or right buttons (you play Bandersnatchby choosing between options on the left and right of the screen). After all, you also use a trackpad on your laptop, and the game works fine there.

Regardless of the reason, Apple TV and Chromecast users took to Twitter to vent their frustration.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

(Editor: {typename type="name"/})