Between a short Twitter post and a pop-up message on the most recent update to the Exodus addon, third-party developer COLDFIRE, also known as Agent 47, has officially announced his plans to end support for the popular movie and TV streaming Kodi addon.
COLDFIRE first sent word to the community through a July 22 Twitter post:
Due to having a somewhat small Twitter presence, word on this change did not spread particularly fast. It was not until COLDFIRE released the latest update to Exodus in the Cypher’s Locker repository, which also included a pop-up message upon loading up the addon, that his decision gained some attention. Reddit user Cdf12345 posted a picture of the pop-up message to the /r/Addons4Kodi subreddit, sparking only minimal conversation in response.
COLDFIRE’s Exodus Farewell Message
In his farewell message inserted into the latest Exodus update, COLDFIRE included a fairly clear and pointed legal disclaimer:
However, COLDFIRE appears to be hitting on three specific points in his pop-up farewell message:
- A legal disclaimer to help distance himself from legal consequences associated with pirated streams
- A plea for other developers in the community to pick up the add-on and continue the tradition
- An official sign-off on his own involvement with the addon
There are many different ways one can read COLDFIRE’s disclaimer, while there remain many unanswered questions as to why COLDFIRE decided to drop his support for Exodus.
COLDFIRE picked up support for Exodus only a few weeks ago, following the decision by Smash his support. Smash, the developer behind the newest Exodus fork, Covenant, picked up Exodus in the wake of the sudden disappearance of TVAddons. TVAddons itself had only picked up Exodus support and development after the original Exodus addon developer, Lambda, decided to hand over the reigns following an explosive and embarrassing situation in which he was caught using Exodus to create a DDoS botnet.
A Future for Exodus After COLDFIRE?
The Kodi third-party community has been in a significant amount of flux following the TVAddons crackdown. Exodus is perhaps only the latest example of what can happen within any community when one of the community’s figureheads suddenly disappears without warning.
Nevertheless, the third-party addon crowd has always been resilient. While the official Kodi development team may see the third-party community as more akin to a multi-headed hydra, opportunity always seems to immediately fill the void in indie circles. Even in the wake of TVAddons shutting down, many new repositories and addons have popped up and gained more attention. That includes the now-popular Colossal (Colossus) repository from Smash, Cypher’s Locker, and the Kodisrael repository, as well as new add-ons such as Covenant and Genesis Reborn.
Following his Twitter announcement, one small third-party add-on developer, @KodiRevolution, decided to step up to the plate:
Although Kodi Revolution notes that he has only limited experience, his desire to pick up Exodus development reveals that Exodus may only be “dead” for a limited time. Should Kodi Revolution decide to follow through with his comment expressing interest, many in the community will likely praise his efforts. Despite the large number of Exodus forks currently available, some users initially came to Kodi due to hearing about Exodus.
How Exodus will evolve now that support has officially been dropped remains to be seen. What we do know, however, is that COLDFIRE appears to have proven his development talent enough to be added to the development team for Covenant. COLDFIRE verified this fact in a response to another Twitter user on his Exodus Twitter post:
COLDFIRE does not go into any detail regarding his new role with the Covenant development team, which includes Smash. However, it is likely that his role will be notable given his own talent at Python coding and his proven ability to fix some of the major problems that can occur with Exodus and its forks.
Given these developments, we will continue to monitor Exodus and track COLDFIRE’S involvement with the Covenant development team.
