O Antstream Arcade, streaming service for licensed classic games, was officially launched on Xbox consoles this Monday (24). With an annual or lifetime subscription, users receive access to a rotating catalog with over 1400 titles retro, including popular games like Mortal Kombat, Metal Slug, Space Invaders, Pac-Manbetween others.
The platform not only lets you revisit classic titles, but also brings some exclusive features to nurture their communities. Among them are weekly tournaments, leaderboards and special challenges that directly touch the game code, creating new conditions for scoring.
With the launch, the intention to add new games weekly to the Antstream catalog has already been confirmed. Among the platforms supported by the service are Nintendinho, Super Nintendo, Atari, Game Boy, Mega Drive, Arcade, among others. Even PSOne is on the list, although only two games are currently available.
It is worth noting that, at the moment, current subscribers need a new profile to play on Xbox – which can be a huge obstacle for existing users. Aware of this, the development team announced that it is already working on a way to link accounts, which should be available by the end of this year.
Price and how to play
Currently, Antstream Arcade has not officially arrived on the Xbox store in Brazil. Those responsible for the launch did not explain the region limitation, but it is still possible to access the game.
By going into the Xbox Series S or X system settings, you can easily change the console region to the United States. After the system restarts, Antstream Arcade can be purchased from the Microsoft Store in dollars, in two versions:
Antstream Arcade – US$ 29,99Antstream Arcade: Lifetime Pass – US$ 79,99
Considering that the launch project has direct participation from Microsoft, the tendency is for Antstream to be launched with a localized price in Brazil in the future.
The emulation platform can be purchased by changing the Xbox region to the United States.
Launch on Xbox
Antstream has been available for desktop and mobile devices since 2019, but launching on Xbox One and Xbox Series was already part of an expansion plan. According to Mike Rouse, head of Antstream, this was possible thanks to the collaboration of Phil Spencer, current president of Microsoft Gaming.
“I got in touch with Phil Spencer and we had a meeting, he loves preserving games – he talks a lot about it, but when you see him and he’s face to face talking about it, he’s extremely passionate about it,” Mike Rouse said in an interview on the Xbox Expansion Pass podcast.
“He essentially gave us the thumbs up to work with Xbox, so we’ve spent the last year prepping our technology and optimizing the code to get it running on Xbox. Without the support of Phil and his team, this would never have happened,” he added.
Preservation of video games
In recent years, the topic of preserving video games has been on the rise. With the closure of digital stores and other official means of acquiring old games, it is increasingly difficult to access them legally.
One study da Video Game History Foundation (VGHF) e Software Preservation Network aponta que 87% of classic games released in the US are no longer legally playable today – an average of 9 out of 10 titles.
2023-07-24 19:45:00
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