Antstream Arcade, a London startup that makes a streaming platform for retro games, said it received a round of funding led by Chinese gaming and social giant Tencent.
London-based venture firm Hambro Perks also participated in the Series A funding. The funding amount wasn’t disclosed.
Antstream Arcade offers a monthly subscription service to more than 2,000 retro video games. With that big catalog, Antstream Arcade offers casual “snacks” for its subscribers, letting them pick up and play classic retro games on demand. They can also interact with social challenges on the platform and compete with friends.
AntStream Arcade is available on Mac, PC, Xbox One, tablet and mobile devices, Nvidia Shield, and Amazon Fire Stick, with other platforms coming soon. In this case, you don’t have to buy separate vintage hardware to access older games.
Following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Antstream Arcade soft-launched in July 2019 in Western Europe, and it plans to launch in the U.S. at the end of 2019.
“Streaming is the future of gaming and the feedback we have received from our fans and early adopters has proven the point, they love it,” said Antstream Arcade CEO Steve Cottam, in a statement. “We are truly privileged that Tencent recognized our potential by investing so early in our journey. The company is synonymous with gaming and we are proud to be part of its family. Tencent has given us an incredible endorsement of our plans at Antstream Arcade, and we are delighted to lean on the support of its team as well as Hambro Perks to bring the joy of retro gaming to modern devices and new audiences.”
“Hambro Perks is thrilled to back Antstream alongside Tencent,” Dom Perks, CEO of Hambro Perks, in a statement. “We predict that its retro gaming platform will be hugely popular with veteran gamers as well as younger demographics. Mobile streaming classic games is a fantastic idea and the team behind the vision is truly world-class.”
Antstream Arcade was founded in 2013 in London.