Ares Alpha App — 2025 Recap & 2026 Roadmap
2025 was a strong year for Ares Alpha. Our player base kept growing steadily, with many games exceeding 250+ players.
One of the biggest upgrades was the Comm Module, bringing in-app chat and mission management. We also delivered two highly requested features: full NATO symbol support and Player Tags, fully configurable directly from the app.
On the backend side, we migrated our entire infrastructure to new cloud servers. Ares Alpha is no longer a weekend project — it now supports a constant flow of games, from small skirmishes to some of the largest airsoft events worldwide.
2026 Roadmap
We’ve collected a lot of ideas and requests from the community. Top priorities include:
- App language localization
- More perks and expanded perk settings
- In addition to the points system, we want to introduce virtual coins that can be earned and spent on perks
- We also plan to finalize the video manuals and tutorials started this year.
In our forum section, we have many additional requests, all of which are carefully reviewed.
We’d like to talk openly about app monetization. Over the past 5 years, Ares Alpha has grown a lot — and so have the costs and development time behind it, especially for things like localization and new features.
Starting next season, we’re planning a simple and transparent approach:
- Use the app with ads, or
- Choose a small symbolic subscription to remove them
This wasn’t an easy decision, but it’s the most sustainable way to keep Ares Alpha growing and improving the way we all want it to.
As always, your feedback means the world to us.
Hey, any thoughts on monetization tru the features tailored to event providers? I'd imagine providers/event runners could pay for an automatic area-ownership resolution feature or other features that can be implemented based on the GPS data you collect. As well as packs of pre-scripted objectives that could be automatically assigned during the mission. All to save the time of human refs and entertain the players
Hi,
We also considered monetizing the app through event providers, but that approach would quickly become complicated. Each organizer has their own way of structuring events and charging participants, which adds a lot of variability.
At the beginning, we want a monetization model that is very clear and easy to understand. It’s something users are already familiar with—around 99% of apps work this way.
I think using the app with ads is a good way for you guys to keep up some steady money flow. But please think about how these ads should work. I have to use some apps that play some fullscreen-ads that you can remove after 10 seconds.
When I'm on a game, worked an hour to get to a specific position to scan a QR code and then I have to watch some ads first would be super frustrating I think.
Fully agree—ad placement must be handled very carefully. However, our goal is for Ares Alpha users to opt for a monthly or yearly subscription to remove ads. Ultimately, we aim to build a steady revenue stream from community subscriptions rather than relying on advertising.