MX vs. ATV Alive is an off-road developed by and published by . The game is the fourth title in the series, following , and the last game in the series published by . MX vs. ATV Alive was released on May 10, 2011 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It was the first THQ game to be launched with a new pricing model, where the game would be sold at a lower retail price than most new releases ($39.99 in the United States), but with a larger amount of paid . A later installment of the series, MX vs. ATV: All Out, also utilized a similar pricing model.
MX vs. ATV Alive was released to mixed reviews; its PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions attained an aggregate score of 62 and 63 on . Much of its criticism was directed towards the game's intentional lack of much initial content due to its DLC-oriented structure. In particular, felt that the business model was interesting, but made the resulting game "overly minimal to point of it feeling like a rip off despite the slightly lower price tag".
GameZone gave the game a 7.5/10, considering it to be "an enjoyable, competent off-road racer that succeeds due to its impressive style but struggles from some glaring limitations". While its overall gameplay was considered to be enjoyable and comparable to an arcade-style game, graphical glitches were seen once in a while, and the lack of courses resulting from their slow unlock time led to a repetitive experience.
After acquired MX vs. ATV and THQ's other remaining franchises during their April 2013 liquidation, the company responded to queries on the game's forum regarding missing, unreleased servers and unannounced multiplayer server shutdowns for the game, and stated that they would look into the issues.