Today is a sad day for any Quake Live fans (or maybe a happy one) as id Software has announced that the service will no longer be free and will now require a paid subscription for players.
Quake Live was first created on February 2009 as a free-to-play alternative to Quake III which would only be supported by in-game ads. It was simple, browser-based, but also effective. However, it quickly became clear to id Software that Quake Live would be unable to sustain itself simply through ad-based revenue and they added some premium features to the game. These features would include the ability to vote on maps or run private servers.
Today, however, all this is for naught as Quake Live will be adding a paid subscription service and go from a freemium game to a normal game. This is a very unusual change for games nowadays but id Software is confidence that the advancement will make it worth it. They have added full Steamworks integration to the game in addition to distributing the previously premium features to everyone. This means that now that Quake Live will be adding paid subscription service, everyone is able to create private servers and vote on the next map. In addition, they will be erasing all previously recorded player statistics to prepare themselves for the Steamworks integration.
The game will only cost $10 on Steam and it will be a one-time only payment as opposed to the previous premium features. Previously paying customers can contact support for possible free copies but as of now it seems like they will be forced to buy the product again.
The community is truly torn about this update but it will undoubtedly continue to support the game they have supported for the past eight years.
