Alpha funding

Culture concept

Used a type of pre-release funding model where those who pre-order the game (fund it) during its development phase get their hands on alpha, beta, and other very early development builds as they're made.

496
games
9
platforms

Name variations: Early Access

See also: open beta
This likely (but not necessarily) means that players who do fund the game also get to make their voices heard in the development direction of the game as early as possible, making requested changes (especially things that are in terms of behind the scenes material, the game code, larger things that would be too time consuming to implement later on) to the core concept more likely to happen. However, that is not guaranteed.

The only realiable thing about this funding model is that those who buy the game at the very least get a prototype if not the final game if the developer flops financially during the development phase.

Following services are known to allow/aid alpha funding: Desura, Steam, and Humble Store. Crowdsourcing also commonly employs alpha funding.

Popular tags

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Games by year

09101112131415161718192021 1122856840 AB
A2009 - Minecraft alpha release
B2013 - Steam Early Access launched

The first Alpha funding video game was released in 2011.

Mojang, Defiant Development and Parabole published most of these games.

Platforms

Windows 233
Linux 136
Mac OS X 111
Xbox One 7
PS4 4
Android 2
X360 1
Solaris 1
Stadia 1