diff --git a/Readme.md b/Readme.md
index b420f89364..5b9fd139a5 100644
--- a/Readme.md
+++ b/Readme.md
@@ -145,9 +145,19 @@ Each top-level component receives a `url` property with the following API:
 
 ```jsx
 import React from 'react'
-export default ({ statusCode }) => (
-  <p>An error { statusCode } occurred</p>
-)
+
+export default class Error extends React.Component {
+  static getInitialProps ({ res, xhr }) {
+    const statusCode = res ? res.statusCode : xhr.status
+    return { statusCode }
+  }
+
+  render () {
+    return (
+      <p>An error { this.props.statusCode } occurred</p>
+    )
+  }
+}
 ```
 
 ### Production deployment
diff --git a/lib/router.js b/lib/router.js
index 57e78be942..6e8a95348f 100644
--- a/lib/router.js
+++ b/lib/router.js
@@ -149,13 +149,7 @@ export default class Router {
     const cancel = () => { cancelled = true }
     this.componentLoadCancel = cancel
 
-    let props = {}
-    const status = ctx.xhr.status
-    if (status === 404 || status === 500) {
-      props = { statusCode: ctx.xhr.status }
-    } else {
-      props = await (Component.getInitialProps ? Component.getInitialProps(ctx) : {})
-    }
+    const props = await (Component.getInitialProps ? Component.getInitialProps(ctx) : {})
 
     if (cancel === this.componentLoadCancel) {
       this.componentLoadCancel = null
diff --git a/server/render.js b/server/render.js
index f7a020af14..670fc5508e 100644
--- a/server/render.js
+++ b/server/render.js
@@ -21,8 +21,7 @@ export async function render (url, ctx = {}, {
   const mod = require(p)
   const Component = mod.default || mod
 
-  const { err, res } = ctx
-  const props = ctx.err ? getErrorProps(ctx, dev) : await (Component.getInitialProps ? Component.getInitialProps(ctx) : {})
+  const props = await (Component.getInitialProps ? Component.getInitialProps(ctx) : {})
   const component = await read(resolve(dir, '.next', '_bundles', 'pages', path))
 
   const { html, css } = StyleSheetServer.renderStatic(() => {
@@ -63,7 +62,3 @@ export async function renderJSON (url, { dir = process.cwd() } = {}) {
 function getPath (url) {
   return parse(url || '/').pathname.slice(1).replace(/\.json$/, '')
 }
-
-function getErrorProps (ctx, dev) {
-  return { statusCode: ctx.res.statusCode, stacktrace: dev ? ctx.err.message : undefined }
-}