The Atari VCS is a modern game console with a retro design and support for both classic games and some newer titles. It’s not expected to ship until December, but when it does it turns out you’ll be able to play thousands of classic games by signing up for Antstream, a game streaming service that specializes in retro titles.
Atari has announced a partnership with Anstream that means subscribers with an Atari VCS will gain exclusive access to 50 classic Atari games at launch, with more to come later.
That’s in addition to more than 2,000 officially licensed titles that are already included in Antstream Arcade.
A subscription will set you back $10 per month or $8 per month if you pay for a year at a time (for a total of $96 per year). But there’s also a 30-day free trial.
That’s on top of the $250 – $380 you’ll pay to get your hands on an Atari VCS system.
Unfortunately, while the Atari VCS should be able to handle some modern games, you won’t find any in Antstream Arcade — while the service has a pretty extensive catalog of licensed content, the games are decades old and developed for platforms including the Amica, C64, and ZX Spectrum computers as well as arcade titles.
Oh…so they’re going to sell me a service with my new console? Dead in the water.
I was actually going to buy one of these until I read this….
This is expected to be one option for gaming on the Atari VCS, but not the *only* option
I feel this will be less successful than the Steam Machines. At least those had a huge brand name. I have a decently powerful desktop. I’m always running Windows and some variant of Linux (currently using Ubuntu).