Last week saw the big release of Antstream Arcade on Xbox, which brought over 1400 retro games to the platform via the cloud-streaming service, and at least for the time being, it's a service that's actually console exclusive on Xbox.
The reason for that is largely down to Xbox boss Phil Spencer, as revealed by Antstream Studio Head Mike Rouse in a recent interview with the Xbox Expansion Pass podcast. Rouse mentioned during the chat that he already knew Spencer from his previous work in the industry, and a meeting was set up last year to discuss an Xbox version:
"I got in contact with Phil Spencer, and we had a meeting with him, and he loves games preservation - he talks about it a lot, but when you see him and you're one-to-one and you're talking about it, he's extremely passionate about it."
"He essentially gave us the go-ahead to get it working on Xbox, and so we've spent the last year getting our tech in place and optimising the code so that it can run on Xbox. And without the support of Phil and his team, it may never have come over."
Interestingly, Rouse revealed that there was a lot of discussion about whether to postpone the launch until later in 2023 due to a brand-new interface and many other features that are being built for Antstream Arcade at present, but the decision was made to release in July due to a fear of "getting lost with all the big AAA releases at Christmas".
As a result, Xbox players should hopefully be able to experience the new interface before the end of the year as well as some other cool additions - and we already know that many more PlayStation 1 games are on the way too!
Did you get Antstream Arcade on Xbox? Tell us what you think of it in the comments below.
Comments 31
New interface, great! Glad to hear they are still looking to improve the service. I've had a lot of fun with this over the weekend.
I've spent a lot of time on antstream over the weekend absolutely love the challenges and finding games I used to play as a kid.
I've even found games I never even knew about like city Connections wow this is a very additive game especially with the challenge mode to survive on one life and get the highest score.
Been a very great experience
@TojoDragon84 Yeah, the challenges and Tournaments definitely add that One More Go appeal to them, it's a lot of fun.
I wish the xbox would beg shmup developers to preserve games on the xbox like the Switch. They did during the 360 era and it moved japanese units. The Switch is too dominant rn in this regard.
I really like this service! Can't wait for more games and continued evolution.
Love this service, great to play some old classics in a convenient way and the challenges are really fun.
I highly recommend anyone with an interest in old school games gives this a go.
@Cashews Yeah, I'm a big fan of the SHMUP genre. I have found a few on Antstream, so hoping more will be added.
@Cashews I'd love to see that initiative too.
Even on PS I have quite a few (28 in my shmups folder), but Switch has tons. There's not so many on Xbox.
Obviously PC with decent emulators will always been the shmup king, but it would be great to get more on Xbox...
It's looks good I aren't streaming games if they were downloads the service would be great unless you have a good Internet connection it's pointless
@BeerIsAwesome how can he keep the server online if no one plays the game. Someone has to pay for the server cost.Offline games doesn't have those problems though
Has anyone had any luck getting saving to work? For me it says save successful but the slots stay empty.
@Kharjo Same here... I did email support and they are aware of the issue. I have a few games missing too.
@RetroMan71 Ah good to know ta. I emailed support on Saturday and the guy came back the same day and said they would look into it.
@BeerIsAwesome
All games can be preserved if the effort is there. I'm sure we could still gather a load of PC's into one room and play counter strike over LAN.
What's next, Dolphin? It'd be nice to have more of these services on Xbox.
Had a blast on this over the weekend and don't regret my lifetime sub one bit. Even finding games I'd forgotten about just by seeing the cover art. Already completed 2 of the Dizzy games.
I'd like to recommend a game called "pushover" to people here. It's a domino puzzle game and highly addictive. Back in the day before save games when you had to write down a code for the level you were on. I'm pretty sure it was branded by "Quavers" too but that has gone for obvious reasons.
I hope the interface update allows to scroll horizontal menus with lb/rb or the triggers. That is my only criticism.
Had great fun on this over weekend with just one bad point. Not being able to play using my account from xbox on other platforms? Apparantly they are working on this? Hopefully it's sorted soon. Supercars 2 is just amazing.... And my all time amiga fave, Persian Gulf Inferno....amazing..still!
Glad to hear Antstream Arcade will actively want to improve. Maybe they could have a Trial as an Ultimate Perk to let people see if it's for them a bit down the line?
I don't believe anyone at Xbox cares about game preservation though. Not even just because they ended the Backwards Compatibility Program, but because they're not doing anything to preserve the games that were part of it. A lot of these games are over a decade old, and their sale licenses for the Xbox storefronts are expiring every week, like that big chuck of games announced out of the blue in February. They're not doing anything to preserve more games by adding them, and they're not doing anything to preserve the ones they have by reaching out to companies. Let alone the fact they themselves delisted the old Halo games & DOOM ports, and if the Gears Collection rumor is true, you can count on those leaving too.
And friendly reminder Antstream Arcade is cloud based, so no matter how cool or successful it is, one day it'll be gone like all those live service games, and the entire BC catalogue.
@Kharjo probably just teething problems
@SacredPYRO
I loved Pushover back in the day on my Amiga and yes I'm sure it had my favourite crisps "Quavers" as branding.......I think it was on the Amiga Box cover art.
@Hutchilawd
Supercars 2 was brilliant back in the day
@shoeses @shoeses
If Phil didn't care then we wouldn't have Antstream 🥴
@MSX No? If he thought it'd make money that'd be enough.
@SacredPYRO Haha! Yes I remember Pushover, played that on the Amiga.
I've just had an email from Antstream, and they say that the NAMCO titles like Pacman and Galaga aren't available in the XBOX version and this is why they are missing... but hoping to bring them soon.
@RetroMan71 I won't hold m breath...
The major problem for me (yeah, i'm old...) : no special effects, like scanlines,etc.
8bits or 16bits are pretty ... awful on a 4K TV set.
If you take apart the problem of streaming the game, the other important point is to RESPECT the game, and try to shape, like "back in the days"... This part is missing here !!
Too bad because I think i'm the main target for this kind of service (YES, I started on a NES console....).
In this state, it's a NO GO for me .... Oh and .. sorry i don't give a damn about achievements.
i'm too old for this stupid "achievements game" of "mine is bigger than yours" if you follow me....
Quality time is REALLY better than quantity ... you will eventually learn this with experience...
@shoeses how do you know no one cares and no one is doing anything? You can care about game preservation and also understood the complicated legal realities of saving games and be unable to do anything.
Xbox certainly do more than most. Remember a lot of games that aren’t backwardly compatible aren’t due to technical reasons it’s because the rights to the code, art work, music, story, publishing ect are shared by 87 different people, often companies that don’t exist anymore making it impossible to ‘legally’ save them.
I’m not sure what Phil Spencer is is personally meant to do about that?
Do you think it’s more likely they had to remove the older versions of games you mention out of spite or because legally licenses were running out and because there was a remaster out they couldn’t justify paying to keep the old one alive?
@Scenes I mean you're willing to believe anything they say hook, line, 'n sinker, that they combed over literally every game that exists on the OG Xbox & 360 storefronts, and that everything that didn't have legal trouble had game breaking bugs & errors, then there's really no point debating this with you now is there? As we all know, GTA San Andres & GTA4 are small scale, short games with very little room for a possible bugs, and have wholly original soundtracks entirely owned by Rockstar that would never have licensing issues. But games like Rotastic, Things on Wheels, & the 2 Yugioh games, all fully owned by their respective companies? Too much room for error TBH.
And no, as a matter of fact I do not believe Microsoft had to remove the old Halo & DOOM games because of licensing. Call it a hunch, a sixth sense if you will, that they had entire control of whether or not those games stayed listed and preserved.
@johndoe89 I'm pretty old too. I was 6 years old when Space Invaders hit the arcades and my first computer was the Amstrad CPC464 (colour monitor).
I completely understand where you're coming from, I have a Mini Amiga 500 connected to a CRT TV just to keep it authentic, and they do still look great, even better looking than my gaming monitor, everything seems so much smoother and cleaner. I'm also sure... infact, I know there are ways of connecting the current gen consoles to CRT TV's, so that's also an option if you want to experience all the other games as they where originally played.
Edit: Check out this video on youtube of a guy comparing CRT to OLED 4k... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PdMtwQQUmo
@S-Bacc Interesting... but I'm doubtful any of this info matters considering they said the BC Program is over, and not suspended or on hold. Unless they plan on make a new program specifying its only for Series consoles, which considering how many games get delisted with no one caring, I'm only doubtful at best.
@shoeses I don’t know where to begin with that. You mention Rockstar owns all the music in their games? You do know they had to push an update to the original GTA4 that changed most of the music in the game?
It sounds like you have a very strong set of beliefs that no amount of facts will convince you of otherwise. So I’m going to agree with you.
You’re correct. It’s that’s easy and game devs (Phil Spencer in particular) is doing all of this out of spite because. You won. Congrats.
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