Quake Live Drops Free-to-Play Model in Favor of One-Time Purchase

id Software's PC game Quake Live has changed business models. The arena FPS this week dropped its free-to-play model in favor of a one-time payment scheme. The change officially took place October 27, about 21 months after the game first arrived on Steam back in January 2014.

Previously, Quake Live was offered for free with the option to buy a subscription that unlocked various extras. That subscription has now been replaced with a one-time $10 price for new players.

"By retiring our services and subscription service, all players now have the same benefits and features in-game," id Software wrote on Quake Live's Steam page. "All players can participate in map voting processes, have full access to customize their game to the same degree as others, and have the ability to run their own Listen Servers and configure their matches to their own liking."

If you already have Quake Live installed on Steam, you can continue to play without needing to pay. In the event that you bought a Quake Live subscription but did not actually download the game before October 27, you can contact customer support to get things sorted out.

Quake Live also now supports the suite of Steamworks features, including voice chat, server browser, achievements, anti-cheat, trading cards, workshop, and statistics.

"Today marks a new beginning for Quake Live," id Software said.

The developer went on to say that the new Quake Live update contains a plethora of fixes and changes.

"This update is an accumulation of a year of code updates, optimizations, and over 4,500 map fixes," it wrote. "We hope all players enjoy soaking in our new UI, in-game settings menus, spectating features, UTF-8 text chat, True Type Font support, Workshop, and our Stats API. We have had great pleasure working on this project over the past eight years, and cannot wait to see what the community comes up with in the many years to come."

Quake Live, which launched in 2010, is essentially a port of the 1999 PC Game Quake III Arena.