Valve has launched a new 'Early Access' section of Steam which allows gamers to play early versions of games that are still in development.
The new section, launched today, lets you pay to gain access to early or 'alpha' versions of games. The service has gone live with 12 games available, most of which offer gamers access to the current alpha version with continuous updates, and the rights to download the final game when its finished.Many of these offers also present themselves as discounts on what will eventually be the final price of the game when its launched, rewarding players who make the pledge early."The goal of Early Access is to provide gamers with the chance to 'go behind the scenes' and experience the development cycle firsthand and, more importantly, have a chance to interact with the developers by providing them feedback while the title is still being created," explains Valve."To support the interaction between Early Access players and developers, Steam offers easy and automatic updating of games, letting developers iterate quickly to respond directly to bug reports and feedback from customers."Here are the first games to support Early Access play: