Quake Champions Will be Free to Play

Steven Bogos

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Quake Champions Will be Free to Play

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1341/1341256.jpg
Free-to-play players will only have access to Quake Champion's Ranger champion.

Bethesda Softwork has finally revealed the business model for Quake Champions, its upcoming Quake reboot. In an interview with Polygon [http://www.polygon.com/2017/3/10/14877004/quake-champions-free-to-play-full-price-favor-currency], creative director Tim Willits reveals that the game will be fully free-to-play, but will also include a paid option. No mention of the dreaded microtransactions were had.

Essentially, free-to-play players will have access to all of Quake Champion's maps and modes, but only the Ranger champion. They can pay a one-off fee to permanently unlock all other champions, but Willits said there would also be in-game ways to get new champions. Think Smite and its founder's pack.

"At its core, it's a free-to-play game," Willits said, "with the option to buy the Champion Pack and just get in and play with all the Champions. There are a number of Quake players that just want to play their Quake, right? And they are familiar with the business model of our previous games, and they are totally fine. 'I want to buy the game. I want to start playing. I want to have access to all the Champions.'

"But then we also understand that we want to get as many people into the game as possible, especially outside of North America and Western Europe, where we have a massive fan base. So we want to have the flexibility to have a free-to-play option for those people."

Free-to-play players will earn "favor" - the game's in-game currency - and use it to temporarily unlock new champions. "I don't want to use the word rent," Willits said of the system. "You do spend favor to have access to them for a limited amount of time, yes. But you don't spend any real money on it."

Source: Polygon [http://www.polygon.com/2017/3/10/14877004/quake-champions-free-to-play-full-price-favor-currency]

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fix-the-spade

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And just like that, any interest in The Quake Overwatch clone evaporated in a puff of spent plasma.

So, when is a real Quake 5 coming along? Not that I'm holding my breath since Zenimax farmed out Doom's multiplayer to the Halo 5 B team and got about what they deserved.
 

Adam Jensen_v1legacy

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Not the greatest idea, because the problem with free to play shooters is the amount of cheaters. But I guess that it's really difficult to achieve financial success with that type of game in the age of Overwatch.
 

Saelune

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Unlike the Switch where I kept getting excited, then worried, then excited, then unexcited, the "new Quake" is just a simple downward fall.

Edit: "I dont want to use the word rent..." Probably cause even that sounds more charitable than it really is. Extort maybe?
 

Saelune

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...Occured to me, Champions? CHAMPIONS!? Why do you need champions? It should be a FPS with guns on the map you pick up and shoot. You shouldnt need any champions.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
fix-the-spade said:
And just like that, any interest in The Quake Overwatch clone evaporated in a puff of spent plasma.

So, when is a real Quake 5 coming along? Not that I'm holding my breath since Zenimax farmed out Doom's multiplayer to the Halo 5 B team and got about what they deserved.
Oh holy shit, not everything is an overwatch clone, fuck. Overwatch is a tf2 clone with fewer weapon switches.
 

Wrex Brogan

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'I don't want to use the word rent' And yet, it feels so very, very appropriate. 'Temporary' heroes? Really? Fuck, every other free-to-play hero game I can think of right now has had 'can buy heroes with in-game currency'. Shit, Tribes: Ascend gave you three of the fuckers to work with, not just 1. Have to give people something to grind for, taking what they earned away arbitrarily is just going to alienate the fuck out of players and make nobody want to play.

If they really wanted to do Free-to-play with this, they should've just stuck to the Skins model of FtP gaming. Fuck, I remember Quake 3 had dozens of skins for everyone anyway, could've just done that instead and not make people RENT their favourite heroes. Or, hell, just make it a paid-for game and be done with it, really go old-school with it and not cram in all the dumb marketing bullshit of the 2010s game industry.
 

Wrex Brogan

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Worgen said:
fix-the-spade said:
And just like that, any interest in The Quake Overwatch clone evaporated in a puff of spent plasma.

So, when is a real Quake 5 coming along? Not that I'm holding my breath since Zenimax farmed out Doom's multiplayer to the Halo 5 B team and got about what they deserved.
Oh holy shit, not everything is an overwatch clone, fuck. Overwatch is a tf2 clone with fewer weapon switches.
And TF2 is a quake clone (well ok, mod, but still) with character classes... which... wait... is Quake Champions a Quake clone? Is it Quake, all the way down?
 

Death Carr

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all I remember of quake is that the "champions" were all the exact same except they look different (and might be taller or shorter)

is this Quake gonna be adding special abilities unique to champions?
cause thats dumb as fuck
 

Saelune

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Wrex Brogan said:
Worgen said:
fix-the-spade said:
And just like that, any interest in The Quake Overwatch clone evaporated in a puff of spent plasma.

So, when is a real Quake 5 coming along? Not that I'm holding my breath since Zenimax farmed out Doom's multiplayer to the Halo 5 B team and got about what they deserved.
Oh holy shit, not everything is an overwatch clone, fuck. Overwatch is a tf2 clone with fewer weapon switches.
And TF2 is a quake clone (well ok, mod, but still) with character classes... which... wait... is Quake Champions a Quake clone? Is it Quake, all the way down?
But Quake is DOOM's younger brother, and they are the children of Wolfenstein 3D. (Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior are their cousins :D )
 

Zydrate

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I think Overwatch fulfills all my competitive multiplayer needs. I tried DOOM and now I can't seem to find any games. Eternal Crusade is a complete crapshoot. Etc, etc.
 

AzrealMaximillion

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Adam Jensen said:
Not the greatest idea, because the problem with free to play shooters is the amount of cheaters. But I guess that it's really difficult to achieve financial success with that type of game in the age of Overwatch.
I don't think a game being free to play attracts cheating. Look at CS:Go. And Battlefield 1. And The Division. And Dark Souls. Its really that Blizzard has a super high price for cheating. Its a perma ban. Even for a lot of stuff that nets you a temp ban in CS:Go.
 

Saelune

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AzrealMaximillion said:
Adam Jensen said:
Not the greatest idea, because the problem with free to play shooters is the amount of cheaters. But I guess that it's really difficult to achieve financial success with that type of game in the age of Overwatch.
I don't think a game being free to play attracts cheating. Look at CS:Go. And Battlefield 1. And The Division. And Dark Souls. Its really that Blizzard has a super high price for cheating. Its a perma ban. Even for a lot of stuff that nets you a temp ban in CS:Go.
I think it is less attracting cheaters, and more not deterring them. If you get banned from a F2P game, it is not like it costs you anything to make a new account. And I feel F2P games have lower quality control since it seems like such games are ironically more about making money than paid games
 

AzrealMaximillion

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Saelune said:
AzrealMaximillion said:
Adam Jensen said:
Not the greatest idea, because the problem with free to play shooters is the amount of cheaters. But I guess that it's really difficult to achieve financial success with that type of game in the age of Overwatch.
I don't think a game being free to play attracts cheating. Look at CS:Go. And Battlefield 1. And The Division. And Dark Souls. Its really that Blizzard has a super high price for cheating. Its a perma ban. Even for a lot of stuff that nets you a temp ban in CS:Go.
I think it is less attracting cheaters, and more not deterring them. If you get banned from a F2P game, it is not like it costs you anything to make a new account. And I feel F2P games have lower quality control since it seems like such games are ironically more about making money than paid games
Agreed. As much as people hate on DLC, Eastern F2P games are notoriously bad for money grabbing.
 

Vigormortis

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fix-the-spade said:
And just like that, any interest in The Quake Overwatch clone evaporated in a puff of spent plasma.
May I ask why?

We have the option to buy the game and have access to the breadth of content therein. Or, if someone is the sort without expendable income, they have an alternative way to play with limited content.

I'm curious over the reaction coming from some people over this. Is it because they used the phrase 'free to play'? Is it the stigma of that phrase, despite id explaining the difference in their model?

I mean, you're free to be disinterested in whatever you wish. I'm just genuinely curious where the vitriol is coming from over this announcement.

So, when is a real Quake 5 coming along? Not that I'm holding my breath since Zenimax farmed out Doom's multiplayer to the Halo 5 B team and got about what they deserved.
Zenimax didn't do that, id did. And, immediately after release, they took back development and support of the multiplayer side of DOOM. (which, by the way, was the instant it started getting better. still doesn't excuse them outsourcing it in the first place, though.) With Quake: Champions, id is developing it internally. So it's not a similar situation to DOOM.

Wrex Brogan said:
just make it a paid-for game and be done with it
That's basically what it is, though. Did everyone skip the interview and just go by the blurbs and snippets?

From the interview:
"At its core, it is a free-to-play game," Willits said, "with the option to buy the Champion Pack and just get in and play with all the Champions. There are a number of Quake players that just want to play their Quake, right? And they are familiar with the business model of our previous games, and they are totally fine. [They say,] "I want to buy the game. I want to start playing. I want to have access to all the Champions."

But then we also understand that we want to get as many people into the game as possible, especially outside of North America and Western Europe, where we have a massive fan base. So we want to have the flexibility to have a free-to-play option for those people."


And from the OP of this thread:
"creative director Tim Willits reveals that the game will be fully free-to-play, but will also include a paid option. No mention of the dreaded microtransactions were had."

So basically you can buy the game with a one-time purchase and have everything. Or, you can play it for free with limited access.

I'm...really failing to see the issue here. And this is coming from someone who prefers buying his games rather than getting them for 'free'.

Worgen said:
Oh holy shit, not everything is an overwatch clone, fuck. Overwatch is a tf2 clone with fewer weapon switches.
Overwatch is the current 'flavor of the month'. It's the new 'chicken'. Everything will inevitably be compared to it. The waifu obsessions don't help, either.
 

Bindal

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AzrealMaximillion said:
Adam Jensen said:
Not the greatest idea, because the problem with free to play shooters is the amount of cheaters. But I guess that it's really difficult to achieve financial success with that type of game in the age of Overwatch.
I don't think a game being free to play attracts cheating. Look at CS:Go. And Battlefield 1. And The Division. And Dark Souls. Its really that Blizzard has a super high price for cheating. Its a perma ban. Even for a lot of stuff that nets you a temp ban in CS:Go.
Temp ban that last a lifetime as the only temp ban you're getting in CS:GO is for griefing (1 month)
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Vigormortis said:
Worgen said:
Oh holy shit, not everything is an overwatch clone, fuck. Overwatch is a tf2 clone with fewer weapon switches.
Overwatch is the current 'flavor of the month'. It's the new 'chicken'. Everything will inevitably be compared to it. The waifu obsessions don't help, either.
I think thats one of the things that kinda sunk Battleborn and is kinda hurting Paladins. None of the characters are really waifu bait like the blizzard ones are.

I mean look at Reyna, she is awesome but looks too capable and adult to be a waifu.
 

Hawki

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So despite a p2p option, people are pissed about a f2p option, and despite the presence of a "classic mode" that strips champion abilities, people are pissed about the champion abilities.

Oh, and apparently Nyx is "virtue signalling" to the "tumblr crowd," but so far I've only seen one comment on YouTube claim that.

Huh. 0_0

Worgen said:
I think thats one of the things that kinda sunk Battleborn and is kinda hurting Paladins. None of the characters are really waifu bait like the blizzard ones are.
Battleborn I can't comment on too much, but Paladins?

In terms of visual design, the only Overwatch heroes that could reasonably be called "waifu bait" are Widowmaker and dVa. Meanwhile, Paladins has characters like:

http://paladins.gamepedia.com/Evie

http://paladins.gamepedia.com/Skye

http://paladins.gamepedia.com/Ying

The character of Cassie would have also fit into waifu territory before receiving a visual upgrade.

It also helps Overwatch that its characters and world has backstories, while Paladins is bereft of both of these things.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Hawki said:
So despite a p2p option, people are pissed about a f2p option, and despite the presence of a "classic mode" that strips champion abilities, people are pissed about the champion abilities.

Oh, and apparently Nyx is "virtue signalling" to the "tumblr crowd," but so far I've only seen one comment on YouTube claim that.

Huh. 0_0

Worgen said:
I think thats one of the things that kinda sunk Battleborn and is kinda hurting Paladins. None of the characters are really waifu bait like the blizzard ones are.
Battleborn I can't comment on too much, but Paladins?

In terms of visual design, the only Overwatch heroes that could reasonably be called "waifu bait" are Widowmaker and dVa. Meanwhile, Paladins has characters like:

http://paladins.gamepedia.com/Evie

http://paladins.gamepedia.com/Skye

http://paladins.gamepedia.com/Ying

The character of Cassie would have also fit into waifu territory before receiving a visual upgrade.

It also helps Overwatch that its characters and world has backstories, while Paladins is bereft of both of these things.
Tracer and Mia are totally waifu bait. Evie visually looks it but her personality is pretty anti waifu, Skye is more of a fem-fatal type which also doesn't quite waifu work.

It's weird how of all 3 somewhat similar games that came out around the same time. Battleborn was the most original but it also died the hardest death. Probably because every launch decision they made was wrong.
 

Hawki

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Worgen said:
Don't know who Mia (do you mean Mei?) is, and Tracer is about as anti-waifu as you can get. If Tracer counts as waifu, then practically every character in Paladins would be a waifu by that standard outside Tyra.

Also, saying Evie (or any Paladins character) has a "personality" is like saying there's lettuce in a big mac - technically true, but irrelevant to the main package, and barely noticable.