Quake Champions has shifted from a free-to-play live-service shooter to a paid product, developer id Software announced eight years after the game's original launch. Alongside this change, the Microsoft Store version has been discontinued, leaving Steam as the sole platform for the game.
The newly priced version of Quake Champions is available for $9.99 and bundles content from the game's 30 previously released seasons. This edition also unlocks all Champions and most cosmetic items for every player. However, id Software has confirmed that no further content updates are planned for the game.
This transition, marked by patch 1.31, sees the removal of battle passes, the in-game store, paid currencies, loot boxes, login rewards, and all microtransactions. The user interface has also been reorganized to eliminate free-to-play specific tabs and sections, with character customization now more prominently featured in the main menu.
Players who purchased Platinum in-game within 60 days prior to September 23 will receive a refund. Additionally, existing Steam players will receive the updated, fully-featured version of Quake Champions for free. For those who played the Microsoft Store's "Xbox on PC" version prior to September 23, a Steam copy will be granted within 48 hours if their Bethesda and Steam accounts were linked. Players who did not link their accounts, or who did not have a Steam account, can still receive a Steam copy by linking their accounts on the Bethesda website before October 7.
Quake Champions initially entered paid early access in 2017 before adopting a free-to-play model in 2018. The game officially launched in 2022 after receiving numerous updates that introduced new characters, weapons, and cosmetic items. Despite its updates, Quake Champions never achieved the player numbers id Software anticipated. On Steam, the game's peak concurrent player count was 17,476 shortly after its release, but it has recently hovered around 600 daily players. The title also never made its way to consoles, which may have limited its broader audience potential.