Quake Champions Swaps Its Free-To-Play Model For A One-Time Purchase

Quake Champions Transitions To A Paid Game On Steam, Leaving Fans Confused Published Sep 23, 2026, 6:05 PM EDT Steven is a seasoned writer specializing in the video game and technological fields, with years of experience creating reviews, features, and industry analysis. Passionate about the gaming world and its evolving culture, Steven has always wanted to combine his enjoyment of writing and love for gaming in a way that can provide insightful coverage for players and enthusiasts alike. Sign in to your TheGamer account The Quake franchise might only have a fraction of the popularity that it used to enjoy back in the day, but Quake Champions has still been enjoyed by thousands of players over the years. Even with a vastly diminished player count, the one aspect that certainly helped keep its niche community alive was the free-to-play availability on Steam. In a strange marketing move announced on the official Quake X account, however, the studio has decided to swap Quake Champions from a free-to-play live-service model back to a one-time purchase model, leaving countless players and fans scratching their heads in confusion. Quake Champions' Price Change Isn't Going Unnoticed via: gamecrate.com Given that these kinds of games normally take the completely opposite route of swapping from a paid experience to a free one in order to save their dying player bases, Quake Champions' surprising move comes as the studio announces the final update being made to the game, with no future content being planned for release. Costing $9.99 on Steam, purchasing Quake Champions will let you unlock all characters, most cosmetics, and battle pass rewards that have been released over the past 30 seasons of the game entirely for free, with every microtransaction and loot box now being vaulted from the experience. Rather than snubbing players who have been keeping the small-scale hero shooter experience alive all these years, Quake Champions is granting anyone who previously played the game or added it to their Steam library full access to the experience, and all the paid rewards that come with it. The reaction to the surprising announcement has understandably been quite mixed across the board, with some curiously optimistic that the decision fixes the biggest problem with the previously live-service game, while others say it will all but kill the experience as a whole. Unfortunately, the end-of-service did also come with several server regions being shut down to match its diminishing player base, leaving large portions of those currently still enjoying the experience forced into many further servers with worse connectivity. Regardless of what the long-term effects of the decision will be, Quake Champions has currently seen the biggest boost in players in months, which could hint towards a second life for the long-lived FPS game. Systems Released August 22, 2017 ESRB Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Language, Violence Developer(s) id Software, Saber Interactive Publisher(s) Bethesda Softworks Engine id Tech / Saber3D Engine Multiplayer Online Multiplayer Franchise Quake