We've been big fans of the retro gaming collection Antstream Arcade on Xbox so far, but the team had some sad news to share this past weekend, as Warner Bros. was announced to be leaving Antstream - at least for the time being.
As a result, 27 titles have departed the cloud streaming service over the past few hours. These include likes of Mortal Kombat, Smash TV and Rampage are among them, so it's definitely a painful loss!
Here's the full list of 27 games that have left Antstream Arcade as part of the Warner Bros. partnership:
- 720
- Arch Rivals
- Bubbles
- Championship Sprint
- Cyberball 2072
- Defender
- Gauntlet
- Gauntlet 2
- Joust
- Joust 2
- Marble Madness
- Mortal Kombat
- Pit Fighter
- Rampage
- Rampart
- Robotron: 2084
- Root Beer Tapper
- Satan's Hollow
- Sinistar
- Smash TV
- Spyhunter
- Stargate (Defender 2)
- Super Sprint
- Total Carnage
- Wizard of War
- Xenophobe
- Xybots
It seems the reason for this loss is simply because the two parties couldn't come to terms on a new deal, and Antstream says that the "tough decision" allows the company to "increase our catalogue by 100s more titles".
"After three great years with Warner Brothers and the Midway collection, we decided it was time to bring some fresh content to our players. This tough decision enables us to increase our catalogue by 100s more titles bringing the maximum possible value to our players."
"Antstream releases new titles on the platform every week, a process that involves complex licensing and negotiations with original game developers and IP owners. This ensures owners of the games are paid in a fair manner and the games are playable just as the original creator intended them to. It’s our mission to one day have every game that has ever existed playable on the platform on any device, anywhere in the world."
While it's certainly disappointing news, Antstream has promised a new "Namco collection" has been secured for Xbox and we'll be receiving news about its release very soon, and we already know about a bunch of upcoming games and features that are in the pipeline for the service - including a major UI overhaul in the near future.
What are your thoughts about this? Let us know down in the comments section below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 25
Oh wow, I’ve been in the mood to play Root Beer Tapper, so I missed my chance. Hopefully WB makes their own retro compilation then sometime soon. Half of these I’d honestly like to own.
@somnambulance Check out Midway Arcade Origins. Most of these titles are on there (except MK — boo!) and it’s backwards compatible! I’m sure you can find a used copy for cheap.
I realize this news is probably completely unrelated to the Warner Bros comments from last week, but every time I hear anything about the studio or their games, after their comments in regards to chasing live service, no news seems to be good news, and I’m continuously left with that yucky taste.
@EvenStephen7 Oh wow! I didn’t even know this. I’ll have to check the digital storefront too to see if it’s on there as well. I love having a nice digital library of old arcade games. With a lot of Bamco titles, I know I’ve bought some of them, ie PAC-Man, Dig Dug, Galaga, at least a dozen times. I do love some Joust, Rampage, and Tapper. Those three titles alone are pretty much worth the retail price of $20.
Oof!
Im a big fan of their service, this is a huge loss, lots of old favourites of mine. That said, I am very glad the Namco stuff is finally coming.
Perhaps we will see the WB games return in the future.
One more reason why live service games are awful.
Had this been a buy and done, the games would still be playable.
Every game but Mortal Kombat is on Midway Arcade Origins which is backwards compatible with Series consoles. It's routinely $4.99 on sale.
Glad I didn’t purchase this. One of the main reasons for me to buy it was Mortal Kombat. Gonna hold out a bit longer now…
I only paid for one year. I play at least 8 of these but as stated above they are on midway classics so play them there. Don't think I will renew or get lifetime pass. I'm not nostalgic enough gaming wise.
@somnambulance Midway Arcade Collection is almost under every major sale for 5 bucks, probably will be for the Black Friday sale and definitely worth picking up.
It's crazy that Digital Eclipse hasn't made a MK Collection, or that Mortal Kombat Arcade from 360 isn't BC.
@shoeses It's not up to them, it's up to WB who owns the rights. And I suspect that it's cause they want to push the new MK games.
The future of digital streaming games. What a disaster.
It must be very difficult to maintain this service because they have to renegotiate all the time and they're probably not earning enough money to pay as much as some companies ask for. The good news is that there are many retro collections since the last generation that you can buy and keep.
Imagine paying the £80 they want for a lifetime sub and they take games OFF the service🤣🤣🤣🤣 absolute joke man
@hbkay True. At least it's a one-time payment, unlike PS Plus Super Turbo 3 Premium Edition.
@GunValkyria This. ^
Removed - flaming/arguing
@InterceptorAlpha If they could've taken the approach where you can either pay for the service or pay for what you specifically want like the Capcom Arcade Collections that would've been amazing.
Removed - flaming/arguing
@somnambulance Yo just saw here on the Backwards Compat sale article that it’s $4.99 right now (at least stateside). Had to come back and share: https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/midway-arcade-origins/BS97KVXLT9LK?ranMID=24542&ranEAID=I23MxTm2ku4&ranSiteID=I23MxTm2ku4-JWAqcsJt1Xr.VsZs_peiXQ&epi=I23MxTm2ku4-JWAqcsJt1Xr.VsZs_peiXQ&irgwc=1&OCID=AIDcmm549zy227_aff_7593_1243925&tduid=%28ir__gbd9x3jaxokf63a3piws1ksal32xbqiwiwpcbxwg00%29%287593%29%281243925%29%28I23MxTm2ku4-JWAqcsJt1Xr.VsZs_peiXQ%29%28%29&irclickid=_gbd9x3jaxokf63a3piws1ksal32xbqiwiwpcbxwg00
@EvenStephen7 Thanks for the catch! I honestly bought it last night on the Xbox eshop. I had that feeling it was going on sale. I bought that and Frogger on sale. Had a great time playing some Rootbeer Tapper, Joust, and Rampage last night. Man, am I glad for that backwards compatibility on Xbox consoles!
@somnambulance that’s awesome! Glad to hear you’re enjoying it!
@EvenStephen7 I play mostly new games, but I also turn every console I own into a mini-arcade too. Thanks a lot for recommending this one. Total steal for $5.
@somnambulance I can relate - I play mostly new games but I have such a soft spot for retro titles. I also have a giant collection across the big 3 consoles. Sometimes they're just great comfort food (I've been leaning into it again lately).
No problem at all — thank you. And yea, you can't get much more great games/content for just $5.
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