Internet culture wouldn’t be the same without nostalgia. Now Tencent is banking on that same fervor to apply to video games.
Retro video game purveyor Antstream announced this week that it raised its Series A round led by the Chinese tech giant and with additional participation from British venture capital firm Hambro Perks. The amount has not been disclosed.
The London-based startup has developed a cloud gaming service with a library of over 2,000 classic video games and is taking their streaming platform global. CEO Steve Cottam recently spoke to CNBC about the void his company is attempting to fill in gaming.
“You’ve got Spotify and Apple for your music, while in movies you’ve got Netflix and Amazon. It’s so easy to find that content, but games just got lost because of all these different formats, and they didn’t work on modern devices.”
“You’ve got Spotify and Apple for your music, while in movies you’ve got Netflix and Amazon,” he said to the outlet. “It’s so easy to find that content, but games just got lost because of all these different formats, and they didn’t work on modern devices.”
Tencent might not be a household name in America, but as CNBC notes, gamers might recognize the company as the parent company of “League of Legends” developer Riot Games and mobile gaming firm Supercell, and a minority stakeholder in “Fortnite” maker Epic Games.
Tencent is eyeing an eventual launch in Asia, Cottam revealed CNBC. “When we want to roll this out in Asia, there is no better partner to work with,” he said to the outlet. “They have such a strong foothold in that market.”
Currently, a subscription to Antstream costs £9.99 per month and Cottam told CNBC the price would be the same in U.S. dollars.
“People have a connection to these retro games and nostalgic feelings that are hugely addictive and fulfilling,” George Davies, partner at Antstream investor Hambro Perks, told CNBC. He added that there’s a “huge global opportunity” for the technology Antstream is building.
