Microsoft Adds Over 50 Activision Retro Games To Xbox Game Pass
Retro Classics on Xbox Game Pass
Yesterday, Microsoft announced a partnership with Antstream to bring over 50 classic Activision retro games to all tiers of Xbox Game Pass via a new Retro Classics launcher.
You might recognize the name Antstream because the company actually already has their own app available on a variety of platforms dubbed Antstream Arcade with over 1,000 different officially licensed retro titles. Antstream Arcade is similar to the new Retro Classics app in that you can stream tons of classic games to your system complete with new bells and whistles, challenges, and leaderboards, but it’s a paid app with a much larger library. The main difference is that, as of this time, the Retro Classics app is exclusively available to Xbox Game Pass subscribers only.
Preserving Activision Retro Games via Retro Classics
Activision is one of the oldest and longest running game companies still going. They started all the way back in the late 1970s making games for Atari and are still going strong to this day. As a result, a Retro Classics app from them is loaded with titles from all eras of gaming history including the likes of Commando, Grand Prix, Kaboom!, Mech Warrior 2: 31st Century Combat, and Pitfall!
With this new app, you can quickly and easily access a huge catalog of retro games on your console, PC, and even cloud gaming compatible device like smartphones, Meta Quest headsets, or even supported smart televisions and Amazon Fire TV devices.
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Some of the added features include uniquely crafted challenges to take on against friends or globally on leaderboards, achievements to collect, save states to preserve and load progress, and more. There is local multiplayer for some select titles, but no online multiplayer options—you’ll just be able to send asynchronous challenges to friends instead.
According to Microsoft, they plan to eventually grow this specific Retro Classics app to over 100 different games. This is a great next step in Microsoft’s ongoing efforts in preserving retro games. Hopefully more publishers jump on board with this platform, it would be great to have an all-in-one sort of retro gaming app that’s easily accessible.