It’s rare for a live service game to go out by giving players everything. Quake Champions is doing it anyway.
With its 1.31 point release on September 23, id Software moved Quake Champions from free-to-play to a paid app on Steam. The update unlocks every champion and most cosmetics for everyone. Battle passes, weekly and event challenges, the store, Platinum and Shard currencies, loot boxes and daily login rewards are all gone. The patch notes are just as direct about the future: “No additional content updates are planned at this time.” The game is now $9.99 on Steam.
Anyone who previously played on Steam gets the paid version in their library at no cost. According to Bethesda’s FAQ, the Microsoft Store version has been retired. Players from that version can link their Bethesda.net account to Steam and claim access from September 23 through October 7, with Bethesda support handling stragglers case by case. Anyone who bought Platinum in the 60 days before the switch gets a refund (six months for yen purchases, per local law). Rankings and stats carry over on the same Bethesda.net account.
The final patch isn’t just a shutdown notice, either. It adds a callvote system for kicking cheaters, weapon accuracy HUD options, bold enemy outlines and an adaptive FPS stabilizer. It also fixes an anti-cheat false positive and several map-load crashes. Third-party entitlements like the AMD and NVIDIA promo skins stay hidden unless you already own them.
id Software was hit hard earlier this year when Xbox’s layoffs reportedly cut half of its staff. Meanwhile the studio’s attention has clearly been elsewhere, including Quake’s free Dawn of the Machine 30th anniversary episode.
This is the best possible version of a game winding down. Too many live service titles simply get switched off, taking everything players bought with them. Converting to a one-time purchase with everything unlocked keeps the servers and the game alive. It also finally removes the grind that kept newcomers away from one of the purest arena shooters around. At ten bucks, it’s worth a look for anyone who bounced off the old champion unlock treadmill.
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