id Software Unveils Quake Live Subscriptions

[Logan Westbrook]

id Software Unveils Quake Live Subscriptions

Quake Live is adding new maps and features, but if you want access to them, you're going to have to spend a few bucks each month.

Almost exactly a year after it was announced [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/93883-Quake-Live-Getting-Premium-Service] that Quake Live would be adding a pay-to-use option, id software has unveiled [http://www.quakelive.com/#news/site_news/22] two new subscriptions for the browser-based shooter, called simply "Premium" and "Pro."

The Premium membership gives access to 20 exclusive maps, said to be fan-favorites from previous Quake games, a new "Freeze Tag" game mode, and exclusive "premium level" awards. It also grants the ability to create a clan and join up to five others. The Pro subscription has the same benefits as the Premium level, but also lets players set up their own servers, invite up to three friends with standard accounts to play on premium maps, and doubles the number of clans players can join.

The Premium and Pro subscriptions cost $1.99 and $3.99 a month respectively, and are billed annually. For those who don't want to shell out, there will also be the "Standard" subscription, which is essentially the game as it is right now, and is free, but limits players to just one clan and obviously doesn't have any of the premium content.

Whether the subscription model will be successful remains to be seen however, and will largely depend on how much people want the additional content and features. For many, the free option will be more than sufficient, and although id's John Carmack has said in the past that there were no plans to shut the service down, he also said that it wasn't sustainable on ad revenues alone.

Source: Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-08-09-quake-live-subscriptions-revealed]









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[Ninjamedic]

Is it me or is the FPS Subscription Plague spreading?

 

[Tourette]

Pfft. Sod paying monthly to play a FPS.

 

[ark123]

I predict this will be a cataclysmic failure

 

[npath]

Is it me or is the FPS Subscription Plague spreading?

This is a free-to-download game, no box sales. If they didn't institute subs, id would make approximately $0 off of Quake Live. I doubt ads generate much revenue.

The sub perks don't seem that great. Then again, at $2/month, the actual money you spend seems almost less intrusive than the hassle of taking your credit card out of your wallet.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Quake Live has practically been confirmed (leaked screens) for XBLA...

Will this be present there too?

Just a thought... either way I'm not paying.

 

[DazZ.]

For many, the free option will be more than sufficient, and although id's John Carmack has said in the past that there were no plans to shut the service down, he also said that it wasn't sustainable on ad revenues alone.

He also said there will never be any exclusive content to paying customers.

 

[Delusibeta]

Considering that you have to by the subscription in 12 month blocks, and a year's worth of Pro is roughly £38, which is the same price as the iD Superpack on Steam, I don't think that's great value. However, it's nessary, as they never received much in the way of adverts and since Zenimax bought them out, they've been only advertising Bethesda's and their own stuff.

 

[Valiance]

Considering that you have to by the subscription in 12 month blocks

That's why I'm not getting a premium or pro subscription.

If it was paying 2 bucks to try it out for a month, or at least see the new maps, I would do it. However, it's paying 25 dollars or 50 dollars, respectively, to see the new maps or host my own servers.

I would like to support them, but I really don't want to spend that much for a few new maps.

Honestly, if I wanted to play Freeze Tag, I'd just boot up Quake 3.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Quake live is better than Quake 4 and doom 3 put together, but without more options better AI,more weapon types and a decent story based campaign mode(that kicks quake wars ass) its not worth money to support.....

 

[Dfskelleton]

Probably not buying it, I don't even have Quake Live, but I'd still rather pay $1.99 a month for Quake Live from my favorite developer than whatever amount of money Bobby Kotick (AKA the antichrist) demands me to pay for "The greatest game of all eternity that rhymes with Call of Duty"

I guess Quake Live is like the plan for the original Doom. Give them a free taste of how good it is, but if you want the whole game (more maps and stuff) you can pay for it.

 

[Therumancer]

I think this is ridiculous, pretty much the company looking to charge people to play multiplayer which has been free and sustainable for many years at this point. The gimmick here being that instead of merely getting people to buy map packs as DLC, they can effectively rent them to people instead and make more money.

The industry is simply getting too greedy. The big question I'd be asking right now is "gee, how did you keep the multiplayer totally free all these years, and what changed that makes it unsustainable on just ad revenues... and aren't those ad revenues also fairly new in the scheme of things, with the annoyance of them being justified by it preventing things like these subscription fees from becoming nessicary?"

In the end though I'm going to find this one of the most darkly amusing things ever if it works. I mean I've been sitting here listening to people whine about how companies are charging $15 for a few maps (which you have permanant access to once you pay it) and I admit it's pretty ridiculous. Of course people have been buying them anyway which makes the whining pointless once they already have your money. I expect the same thing to happen here, people will complain, but pay for the subscription, and then we'll see more and more people get involved in doing the same thing. Then every game with any multiplayer will eventually have some subscription attached, gaming will become more expensive than ever before, gaming companies will begin the construction of new Scrooge Mcduck money bins because simply having one won't be enough, and then proceed to find even more ways to suck profits out of us consumers since we let them get away with the subscriptions, and they'll think we fall for anything.

I personally await the innovation of pay to use controllers. To play video games in addition to the subscription fee you will also have a meter on your controller that will charge you money for every button press or motion.... charged directly to your credit card. This will of course be justified due to the allegedly increased cost of bandwidth to the game services employed by your game machines which must always be online. Sure subscription fees cover maitnence, but not all that activity, so they have no choice but to charge us for each motion processed by the online servers (wink, wink). Sadly with this article I have no doubts that some people would believe it and pay.

Sounds like something they would "reveal" on ENN now that I think about it. >

 

[tlozoot]

Ye Gods....it begins.

 

[Jared]

Oh god...here it comes. As long as others dont take too much notice of this...

 

[Echo136]

I stopped playing Quake Live a long time ago. Could never get a decent connection

 

[CezarIgnat]

Quake Live! It's free...but!

I got bored of it quite fast...but that's probably cause shooters aren't my thing.

 

[TWEWER]

Monthly payments? Unreal Tournament doesn't even do that.