The battle is raging in the video game industry. After Google Stadia and Apple Arcade, it is now time for Antstream to offer us its innovation, the platform intends to emulate arcade games in the cloud through video streaming. Moreover, streaming is a big challenge, because streaming must be able to provide quality graphics. The data transfer must also be fast enough to facilitate real-time broadcasts. In this article, Franck Peltier gives us an overview of Antstream.
Fierce competition in retro-gaming
Two weeks after the revelation of Google Stadia, a young company specializing in retro-gaming called Antstream has approached contributors on Kickstarter, to offer them to emulate video games in the cloud through video streaming.
Antstream intends to become the next Netflix in the field of retro-gaming. Its idea is simple: the young company offers access to a wide range of retro games that can be played on PCs, consoles and Android devices in cloud gaming mode.
Currently, Antstream’s teams are in the process of negotiating usage rights with the creators of old retro games. According to informed sources, subscribers will initially be able to access 400 titles. In the meantime, the team confirms that it has reserved the rights to more than 2,000 games.
As for the price of the service, it is expected to be $10 per month and $64 per year. All that remains is to wait for confirmation from Antstream.
For now, the young company has not yet revealed whether it will use open-source emulators just like Stadia. But, it has nevertheless revealed the system it has set up and it looks like the interfaces of the current consoles.
Challenges to overcome
For Franck Peltier, the use of streaming instead of downloading could be a great advantage. Players will be able to indulge their passion in real time without having to burden their devices with downloaded files. Not to mention the fact that streaming also helps fight piracy. In addition, Antstream faces two challenges before it can continue on its path to success.
The first is the technical barrier, while the second is the toy library. For Franck Peltier, there are still optimizations to be made at the cloudgaming level, particularly in terms of video compression quality. On the other hand, there is a good chance that the major publishers will not accept the startup’s offer. We can therefore expect not to find, at least initially, emblematic games such as Sonic, Final Fantasy or Mario.
But after all, let’s be optimistic, if Netflix has managed to make its way, why wouldn’t Antstream?