Xbox Game Pass appears to be taking a page from Nintendo Switch Online’s playbook by adding a slew of classic titles to its library.
Xbox and Antstream Arcade have joined forces to launch Retro Classics, which gives all Game Pass members access to a 50+ collection of Activision titles like “Commando, Grand Prix, Kaboom!, Mech Warrior 2: 31st Century Combat, and Pitfall!”according to Xbox.
The initiative is described as a “commitment to game preservation and backwards compatibility,” as such, these titles will be available to play “across console, PC, and on supported devices with cloud gaming.” That means Xbox consoles, the Xbox app on PC, supported LG and Samsung smart TVs, Amazon Fire TV devices, and Meta Quest headsets. To access Retro Classics, users must download it via a Game Pass membership.
Players can also compete against friends, rivals, or the global community through unique challenges. What’s more, it offers the ability to save and reload progress, “a first for many classic titles,” Xbox boasts. Additional games are slated to arrive from Activision and Blizzard, with an expectation to have over 100+ titles added to the collection over time.
Now it’s obvious Xbox itself doesn’t have a bag of classic titles as deep as Nintendo, which has been churning out games since the first Star Wars trilogy. But it is good to see Microsoft putting those retro Activision classics to good use after acquiring the company a couple of years back.
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