Highlights
- Xbox subscription service Antstream Arcade has dropped 27 games after failing to renew its licensing deal with Warner Bros.
- Despite the loss, the withdrawal of these games will not have a significant impact on the platform’s extensive library of retro games.
- Antstream Arcade says this removal will help it bring over 100 additional titles to its library, including a new Namco collection for Xbox, in the near future.
Xbox subscription service Antstream Arcade has dropped 27 games from its catalog after failing to negotiate a new licensing deal with their publisher, Warner Bros. While its users can hardly be thrilled with this turn of events, the development itself won’t put a significant dent in Antstream Arcade’s massive library of retro games.
The Xbox version of Antstream Arcade launched in July, bringing more than 1,300 retro games to the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. Access to its sizable content catalog starts at $29.99 for an annual subscription. Alternatively, users of the last two generations of Microsoft’s consoles can also opt for the lifetime access option, which comes with a one-time fee of $79.99.
Lifetime membership aside, the actual contents of the service are still subject to everyday change, as underlined by Antstream Arcade’s recent public farewell to Warner Brothers, which saw it reveal it dropped 27 games from its catalog. Elaborating on that decision in a YouTube video update, Antstream Arcade Studio Head Mike Rouse said “it is a sad fact that sometimes games do need to leave our platform.” Rouse insisted that the Antstream Arcade team enjoyed working with Warner Bros. over the last three years, but was unfortunately unable to extend its licensing agreement with the publisher despite working “extremely hard” to do so.
As a result, the original arcade edition of Mortal Kombat, classic 1981 shooter Stargate, vehicular combat game Spy Hunter, and two dozen other WB-owned titles have all left Antstream Arcade on November 10. This turn of events won’t result in the deletion of any user data such as game saves, high scores, and achievements, all of which will merely be archived. This approach should also allow subscribers to continue where they left off if Antstream Arcade were to ever reach a new agreement for licensing WB’s retro gaming catalog.
Warner Bros. Games That Left Antstream Arcade in November 2023
- 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
Antstream Arcade said the decision to drop WB games will allow it to bring over 100 additional titles to its library in the near future. That expansion also includes a new Namco collection for Xbox, which is set to be released “very soon.” Catalog updates of this sort are a fairly regular occurrence for Antstream Arcade, which recently brought a bunch of PS1 games to Xbox as part of a similar move.
Besides Xbox consoles, Antstream Arcade is also available on mobile, Samsung TVs, and PC. The platform’s official website offers the same $39.99 annual membership available on Microsoft’s consoles, as well as a $3.99 monthly subscription. Epic Games Store users have been able to purchase its yearly subscription since late 2021. Antstream Arcade also has a Steam page, where it’s been listed as “coming soon” since October 2022.
Source: Pure Xbox
