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The first console to play host to it, Antstream Arcade hits Xbox next week. What’s that mean? Thirteen hundred classics, that’s what.
An arcade and a half
Update: Had to move a decimal, it’s 1300 games that are included, not 13k. Still great.
If you’re an Xbox player and unaware of Antstream Arcade, and we were, todays is going to be some welcome news. Available on the PC and Android platforms already, Antstream Arcade is a subscription-service that packages up a massive library of classic console titles.
And we don’t mean 25 or 50, or even 100. Antstream boasts a collection of over thirteen hundred games.
Steve Cottam, CEO Antstream grew up with Manic Miner as one of his favorite games; “Despite living in an age of incredible technology, I found it wasn’t easy enough to access the games I loved growing up and I wanted to be able to easily share scores and compete against friends” he said “We believe in the preservation and accessibility of all games, the great, the impossible and the forgotten or lesser known too, I’m very proud to bring the Antstream Arcade platform to the Xbox community”.
“Many of us grew up playing these games, so the ability to stream them on Xbox consoles and share these experiences with our friends and family is incredible,” said Sarah Bond, CVP of Game Creator Experience and Ecosystem at Microsoft. “We’re pleased that with Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub’s technology benefits and Azure cloud services we can help enable Antstream to reach more players.”
Antstream Arcade press release
Bringing it back
As you can see, Antstream Arcade stocks officially licensed titles from across multiple era of console gaming. But we’re not talking about solely stuff from the likes of Atari, Commodore, and Sega. According to the titular company, fans can get in on some games from classic Nintendo consoles as well, and even games from the PSOne era. As Antstream notes too, many of these are first-timers on Xbox.
Playing this massive collection won’t require any downloads either, from the sound of things. Antstream Arcade looks to be cloud-based, not requiring anything from players other than to actually select and play the games. Those titles are all optimized too, “through a rigorous quality control process to ensure the gameplay is as the developer intended.”
And it doesn’t stop there either, as those who buy-in can expect “instant cloud game saves, online high scores and resume play features across multiple devices.” Also included is are online leaderboards with competitions to see who the best player really is, Achievements, and a constantly updated roster of games (that includes brand-new Indies, made for classic consoles like Flea and Reshoot R). And then there are the mods.
One of the platform’s cooler features, AA actually mods classic titles in what looks to be some slick new ways. That includes a twist on Pac-Man that we’re pretty sure has never been done before.
Antstream Arcade also brings a revolutionary way of playing retro games with its unique technology that mods the originals to create new mini-game challenges, giving both veteran and first-time players a fresh approach to enjoying the classics. Play as Pac-Man and avoid collecting the dots or where Pac-Man does the chasing and Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde are on the run!
Antstream Arcade press release
Interested? Antstream Arcade is heading to Xbox on July 21st, 2023, and will be playable across the family of consoles. It is a service, so remember that you’ll need a subscription to it to gain access to its library. Subs will run £/$/€29.99 annually or £/$/€79.99 for lifetime access, and regional access isn’t unlimited just yet. The Arcade will be available in Europe, the UK, the US, Canada, and interestingly, Vatican City.
