Commodore is back in the game publishing business.
Today, August 24, Commodore announced its plans to publish a 35th anniversary collection of classic Alien Breed games to PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch devices on September 24. Commodore partnered with Antstream Arcade to develop the collection, licensing the Alien Breed IP from its original developers at Team17.
Alien Breed is one of the industry’s longest-running shooter game series, with its first iteration coming out in 1991. The most recent installment in the series, Alien Breed 3: Descent, was released in 2010. The upcoming Alien Breed collection represents Commodore’s first publishing venture since Commodore International Corporation took over the brand’s surviving trademarks and IP in 2025.
“You’re not going to see 10 titles a year from us; that’s not the goal here. We are waiting for the right opportunities, when we see what we can do and understand the greater purpose it serves,” said Commodore chief strategy officer Jim Squires in an interview with GamesBeat. “And it doesn’t necessarily have to be that we’re going to sell a million copies — which I know is what everyone wants with one of these — but the reality is that game preservation is incredibly important.”
The upcoming Alien Breed collection will include the six titles in the original Alien Breed series, which was originally developed for Commodore’s Amiga series of personal computers between 1991 and 1996. The collection includes both top-down shooters like the original Alien Breed and first-person shooters like Alien Breed 3D.
Commodore has made nostalgia into a core pillar of its business strategy, with ventures like a flip-style Commodore-branded mobile phone and the Commodore 64 Ultimate line of retro computers. With this strategy in mind, tapping into one of Commodore’s most beloved and long-running gaming IPs for the reformed company’s first foray into publishing is a logical move for Commodore. Squires said the company’s strategy goes beyond nostalgia to tap into anemoia, the concept of feeling of nostalgia for a time or place one has never experienced.
“When it comes to Gen Z’s rejection of a lot of what’s happening in the modern world right now, they are seeking alternatives from 20-plus years ago. Physical camera sales are at an all-time high; if you’re under 25, you have corded headphones,” Squires said. “So, I think anemoia plays just as much as, if not an outsized, role compared to nostalgia, because folks are looking back to that era.”
Commodore’s upcoming collection of Alien Breed re-releases expands on the original titles with new features geared toward the modern gaming experience, like dual-stick controls, instant save states, retro screen filters, rumble feedback, and online co-op in select titles. It will also include new challenge modes and a virtual museum containing developer interviews, early design documents, and other unreleased material from the development of the Alien Breed games.
“It’s about bringing these games to a new audience, because if these things are now on modern platforms, there’s going to be exposure, one way or another,” Squires said.
To promote the upcoming Alien Breed 35th anniversary release, Commodore is bringing a playable arcade cabinet to the company’s booth at Gamescom later this week. The company debuted the collection during today’s Pixel Arcadia livestream, and is working with several streamers and creators to share Alien Breed with their audiences, including via the Twitch stream of actor and Commodore chief creative officer Thomas Middleditch.
“He’s a notable actor and comedian, but he’s also our chief creative officer, which is great,” Squires said. “And he has a pretty dedicated Twitch following that he’s been taking a break from, but he’s going to make a return to it on launch day, streaming Alien Breed.”