Antstream Arcade is a retro gaming cloud gaming platform with over 1300 games, ranging from the dawn of the arcades to some classic PlayStation One games. But suppose you are to browse Antstream Arcade’s library. In that case, you’ll see some notable publishers like Namco, SNK, Taito, and Atari but notice other notable names like Capcom, Konami, and Sega are absent from the platform. In this article, we plan to go over why game publishers should give Antstream Arcade a chance and why some publishers might not be so easy to convince.
The Preservation Mission:
Let’s start with the obvious one, Antstream Arcade could easily be described as the Netflix of retro games. Antstream Arcade has games from the birth of the arcades and throughout many handhelds, consoles, and microcomputers up until the original PlayStation. Some games such as Atari’s Centipede and Bitmap Brothers’ Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe have multiple unique versions spanning different consoles, microcomputers, and in some cases even the arcades. One of the hardest things about game preservation is the decision of which versions of select games are the most “worthy” of preservation. Companies like Sega have long re-released many of their classic games, so to me, it would make sense for such a publisher to license some of their games to the Antstream Arcade platform.
Dedicated Fans:
The next point is quite simple, dedicated fans. Many game platforms struggle to appeal to gamers who want to enjoy games from their childhood (even Nintendo struggles with this). Antstream Arcade has curated a library spanning seventeen different retro game systems and including some obscure games which may not be known by many gamers, which gives the opportunity for discovery. Konami would be the perfect partner here due to their PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 home console, which has many retro games that haven’t been re-released on modern systems. The more publishers who show their support to Antstream Arcade will in turn be able to help please more dedicated retro gaming fans who want to play more classic games from their youth.
Why Publisher’s Won’t Play Nice:
Now let’s go over why many publishers haven’t jumped on the Antstream train. You can sum up the issue with one five-letter word, “Money”. Due to the popularity of certain games and franchises, many publishers like Capcom, Sega and Konami are less likely to license hit games like Street Fighter 2 or Sonic The Hedgehog largely due to the fees they would request for a small company like Antstream Arcade to secure these games. With Antstream being smaller than a company like Nintendo which means they can’t afford to license as many high profile games from classic systems like Nintendo can.
This leads to Antstream having a number of high-profile games from publishers like SNK and Taito who aren’t as notable as Konami or Capcom. This also led to Antstream licensing games from companies like Atari and Piko Interactive alongside a bunch of smaller games from lesser-known publishers who mainly produced games for microcomputers. Hopefully, someone like Sega will license a handful of games to Antstream Arcade just to see if it is worth their while, if such an occasion does arrive we will hopefully not see a repeat of Interplay Entertainment and Warner Brothers Games departures.
Do you agree? Do you think big game publishers should give Antstream Arcade a chance?
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