Why isn't the game free?

[Ikagura]

I mean now that Quake Champions is out and Bethesda is making much more money on it than other Quake games...

IIRC someone told me that the game used to be a free web browser of a modified version of Quake 3 Arena Gold, is this true?

[^7Kate^1_^7Hudson]

It was free back in the QuakeLive.com days to an extent. they had a pro/ premium subscription model later after the ad revenue was not enough to cover the cost. It never ran in a "browser" the browser was only a means to launch the game. id hosted the servers and controlled the content because of legal reasons.. after they announced it would be moving to steam anyone who had it at that time could migrate to steam for free. with the move to steam they pretty much gave the community control to host dedicated servers and have custom content in the workshop. far more than we ever had before.. 9.99 is really cheap for such a great game. It was either move it to steam for a very small price or shut it down completely.

[pnkrkr]

should be free

nobody plays it

[^13^7Fingers]

Why is water wet?

[Standarts]

Because of Todd Howard !

[Ikagura]

Originally posted by ^1Shovel^7head:

Why is water wet?

Water has more legitimate reasons to be wet than this game to cost money

Originally posted by ^4He^6ad^4hun^6ter:

Because of Todd Howard !

Isn't he only working on the TeS and Fallout games? The other Bethesda owned IPs are managed by different teams IIRC

[B4silisk]

It was free as a web browser game, since it was out as beta. QL went through many changes since its release. A couple of years before moving to Steam, QL started to offer Premium and Pro packages (the prices were very cheap about $2/$4 a month if I remember right) which allowed the player to join private servers without the need of an invitation and to host customized games respectively.

Every player that had an original account from before the transition to Steam got the game for free. I might be missing some info since it's been a long time, I've been playing QL since late 2009, but I moved temporarily from the US in 2015. I haven't been playing since then because I only had a laptop (lol at playing on a laptop) but I'm trying to find some games now that I have a gaming computer again.

I do agree to a certain extend that this game should be free, idk...maybe to attract more players? But they are in their right to charge since it's their hard work. Steam is even selling the Doom games from the 90's and if those don't go free, this shouldn't either.

[Ikagura]

Originally posted by B4silisk:

It was free as a web browser game, since it was out as beta. QL went through many changes since its release. A couple of years before moving to Steam, QL started to offer Premium and Pro packages (the prices were very cheap about $2/$4 a month if I remember right) which allowed the player to join private servers without the need of an invitation and to host customized games respectively.

I presume that these offer didn't bring enough money (like the ads in the browser version)

Originally posted by B4silisk:

Every player that had an original account from before the transition to Steam got the game for free. I might be missing some info since it's been a long time, I've been playing QL since late 2009, but I moved temporarily from the US in 2015. I haven't been playing since then because I only had a laptop (lol at playing on a laptop) but I'm trying to find some games now that I have a gaming computer again.

I thought that those kind of FPS were made to be also played on low-end PCs (considering that only skill matter over RNG and the computer's power to be more fair), I mean even Arena FPS made recently were not too demanding for the CPU...

Originally posted by B4silisk:

I do agree to a certain extend that this game should be free, idk...maybe to attract more players? But they are in their right to charge since it's their hard work. Steam is even selling the Doom games from the 90's and if those don't go free, this shouldn't either.

Maybe because Champions is giving them more money than Live (that's why the first is F2P compared to the later). Also it's not really their "hard work" because most of the staff that worked on Doom, Doom II (and Final Doom to a certain extent) and probably even the Quake game from Q1 to Q3A isn't working for Bethesda anymore, if someone buys any of the Doom iwad in a way or another they're not even giving any buck toward Carmack nor Romero... Maybe they'll give The Ultimate Doom and Doom II: Hell on Earth for each people who buys Doom Eternal

[Real1Boss]

I would play if it became free to play. I'm playing quake champions now.

[Ikagura]

Originally posted by NickLaw:

I would play if it became free to play. I'm playing quake champions now.

Is it good at least? Just by curiosity

[pnkrkr]

nothin is free but air

[Ikagura]

Originally posted by pnkrkr:

nothin is free but air

Some games on Steam are free but that's not the point of this thread.

Quake Champions is f2p but QL used to be free as well

[^7Kate^1_^7Hudson]

Originally posted by Ikagura:

Originally posted by NickLaw:

I would play if it became free to play. I'm playing quake champions now.

Is it good at least? Just by curiosity

Yes very polished!

[Ikagura]

Originally posted by ^4ƊƐ₳┼Ҥ:

Originally posted by Ikagura:

Is it good at least? Just by curiosity

Yes very polished!

Nice, if the game has similar feelings to Quake 3/Live and has several play mode (FFA or CTF for exemple) it's fine

But the whole "champions" thing, isn't it making the game more like those modern hero shooter (a la Overwatch)?

[Beladrel]

It was free, then people on champions were getting sick of the whole hero based stuff and just wanted a straight arena shooter and started telling other people to just play live instead, im sure they didnt want to compete against their own game.

[Standarts]

TBH , quake live is more ballanced than QC.... I'd rather play good ol' q3/ql instead of this. (don't like the champion system tho)