Quake Live Repriced To $9.99 After 5 Years Of Being Free

Quake Live, the popular free-to-play multiplayer arena game, has been changed and repriced to $9.99 after five years of being free, causing outrage from fans of the classic shooter series.

The reprice comes after iD Software, developers of Quake, were acquired by Bethesda in 2009. Other changes include the removal of previous player stats and Linux support.

The game, which was released in its modern form in August 2010, was originally launched as a free-to-play version of Quake that could be played via a web browser plug-in, and was later added to Steam, creating a large and loyal community around the free competitive game.

Since the reprice and removal of Linux support and stats, the game’s Steam page has been flooded with negative reviews, and disappointed fans have taken to social media to display their dissatisfaction with the new changes.

The changes have also warranted several reddit posts and image board threads opposing Bethesda’s decision.

But some users defended the publisher. One reddit user claims that John Carmack, co-founder of iD Software and lead programmer of the Quake series, had previously spoken at a convention of Quake Live’s lack of profitability, and of the fact that the title regularly lost money from its free-to-play model.

The user went on to state that after five years, Bethesda had no choice but to either shut down the game, or charge for it, and defends their decision to do the latter to keep the game alive.

Despite the presence of some players defending the new changes to Quake Live, it appears a large majority are against them, with some long-time fans even threatening to quit the game altogether, despite the fact that those with the game already installed are allowed to keep it for free.

John Carmack has not publicly commented on the situation, and his only notable public acknowledgment of the changes is limited to a retweet of the announcement made by Quake Live on Twitter.

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