Note: This was of course an April fools prank.

The real codename for v14 has since been established as ‘Helix’.

Amid all this news of the XBMC 13 release (Just now hitting Beta 3), we have some developers who are beginning to submit features for the upcoming XBMC 14, which, of course, means we finally need to settle down and pick a code word for it, much as we picked Eden, Frodo, Dharma, Gotham, and all the others before now. As you all may know, it’s been a tough decision, as there are so many excellent choices that begin with the letter H, but at the end of the day we all knew it could really only be one thing.

Which is why we’re excited to announce the codename for XBMC 14 will be Hasselhoff.

As Norm MacDonald has so famously said, Germans love David Hasselhoff. And Team XBMC today consists of more Germans and German speaking developers than any other nationality. Indeed, there are actually more German developers now than American devs. This name has been picked as a tribute, not just to our German devs, but also to all of our German speaking users around the world.

Don’t Hassel the Hoff

In connection with this new codename, we’re pumped to introduce the very first t-shirt sale for XBMC 14: Don’t Hassel the Hoff. As with the previous sale, all proceeds will be going to the XBMC Foundation, and while technically this shirt doesn’t actually include the name “XBMC,” we think enough people will be familiar with David Hasselhoff’s fine career and history of work to make that an unimportant detail.

Conclusion

We know that some of you may have preferred another name linked more closely with science and/or science fiction, but at the end of the day, after the vote was taken, it was determined that there’s just no way we can please everybody. With that in mind, I’d like to leave you with the following lines, as I think they may help explain our decision:

Some people stand in the darkness

afraid to step into the light.

Some people need to help somebody

when the edge of surrender’s in sight.

Finally, click here for a quick preview of a few things we’d like to see in the upcoming XBMC 14.