Along with getting a price tag, Quake Champions now also no longer has any microtransactions or battle passes, and id Software has also confirmed that there are no plans to add any additional content to the shooter. Those who had already added Quake Champions to their Steam libraries while it was free-to-play don’t have to make any additional purchase, as the paid version of the game will be added to their libraries at no additional cost.

The only cosmetics that will not be made free to all owners of Quake Champions will be third-party ones, like AMD Ruby Nyx, the Twitch Rocket Launcher, and the Nvidia Pulsar Railgun, as well as merit-based rewards like QuakeCon Belts and Golden Crowns. Those who already own these cosmetics will be able to access them.

These changes have coincided with the release of update 1.31, which brought in three new weapons, additional weapon shaders, bug fixes, the new Callvote system, and a host of quality-of-life features. For a full list of changes brought in by the update, check out the patch notes below.

Id Software has also confirmed that it has reduced the number of data centers that host servers for Quake Champions, with more players being consolidated into the same server locations. While this will likely improve matchmaking times for a title that undoubtedly has a smaller player base now than it did at launch, the move also indicates that the studio is looking for ways to further reduce spending on the game.

Quake Champions was originally released in 2018 as an Early Access game before getting a full version in August 2022. Prior to it getting a price tag, id Software had continued sporadic support for the shooter with occasional updates that brought in balance changes and new content.

Quake Champions update 1.31 patch notes:

Major Product Changes

Removed Microtransactions & In-App Purchasing

• Removed Battle Pass
• Removed Weekly / Event Challenges
• Removed the Store
• Removed Platinum and Shard Currencies
• Removed Loot Boxes
• Removed Daily Login Rewards
• Removed Champion Progression (the shard reward path)

Most Vanity Content is now Available to All Users

• Third-party entitlements, such as AMD Ruby Nyx, Twitch Rocket Launcher, Nvidia Pulsar Railgun, and merit-based rewards like QuakeCon Belts and Golden Crowns, are hidden from the Customization list unless you already own them
• Golden Crowns can still be earned as ranked rewards for reaching Elite Rank and are hidden until unlocked
• All other items are unlocked and available for all users to equip
• All items are equipped through Customization

UI Reorganization

• Customization is now located on the top navigation of the Main Menu
• Profile customization (profiles, nameplates. Podiums) are now found inside the main Customization section next to Outfits and Weapons

Critical Fixes

• Fixed several crash conditions that could occur during map loading
• Fixed an anti-cheat false positive, surfaced as an Error 103 message

New Content

Weapons

• QCON 2026 Starting Machinegun
• QCON 2026 Starting Shotgun
• QCON 2026 Starting Nailgun

Weapon Shaders

• MOONSTRIKER Rocket Launcher: Purple and White weapon shader
• ERADICATOR Railgun: Green and Black weapon shader

Podiums

• Ithagnal’s HELL MAGIC Podium

Profile Icons

• 5 Team Arena Clan Profile Icons

New Features

Callvote System

Players can now issue callvotes to kick cheaters or abusive players

• Right-click on a player in the in-game Social menu to start a vote
• There must be 4 or more players in a match to call a vote
• Each player may only call 3 votes per match
• Players vote with their “Yes” (F1) and “No” (F2) Say Command binds

Weapon Accuracy UI & Fixes

• Enable Weapon Accuracy – Displays the accuracy for your current weapon in the lower right corner of your HUD
• Enable Weapon Bar Accuracies – Displays the accuracies for every weapon alongside your weapon bar on the right side of your HUD
• Fixed hitting not tracking hits for deployables such as totems, and turrets

Player Outline Thickness Options

• Added Enemy Outline BOLD option
• Added Ally Outline BOLD option

Adaptive FPS Stabilizer

• Reduces framerate spikes when you’re unable to maintain stable framerates at the framerate limit set (Game Options)

New Leveling System

• Players can now reach Level 999, but the journey will be long and hard fought!
• Players will earn 24-Hour Haste Bonus XP every 10 levels
• Player Profile Levels are now visible on the in-game scoreboard. This can help players identify accounts that are new to the game

Quality of Life

Learn Section

• The in-game Guide is now delivered via local web files, so it will no longer be blocked in some regions. Everyone can once again read the in-game guide information in the Learn section.

FPS Limiter Improvements

• Fixed the built-in frame-rate limiter’s precision and pacing
• Fixed the accuracy of the framerate on the HUD Show FPS display

Network Performance

• Reduced the total size of the network data being transmitted per player

Input System

• Threaded Input improvements for high polling rate mice and/or improved CPU usage
• Fixed old inputs from being processed as respawn actions, which would cause the player to instantly respawn or respawn before desired

Weapon Fixes

• Fixed the weapon trail prediction bug, causing multiple railgun trails
• Fixed weapon vanishing when swapping during a starting weapon upgrade that is actively in progress

Item Pickups & Dropped Items

• Fixed incoming power-up notification timing becoming desynced for players joining after the match starts
• When an item drops, it will now blink in the final moments before it despawns
• Unified how long weapons, armor shards, Stroyent, Blood Punch health, souls, and flags remain on the ground to 20 seconds
• When you drop a power-up with the Drop Power-Up command, the power-up’s duration will now deplete
• Fixed drop commands from issuing text chat messages when a dead player hits the bind
• Added Power-up icons into the frag list controller for kills earned by power-up carriers

Audio

• Fixed a crash that could occur when unplugging or plugging in a USB headset
• Fixed a bug that could cause jumppad sounds to play from the closest jumppad to the player instead of the correct jumppad of origin
• Fixed missing jump, landing, falling, and jumppad sounds.
• These were delivered in unreliable packets that could get lost
• These events are now reliable
• These events are now synthesized client-side when the network data fails to arrive within 200ms of the event
• Improved the announcer VO queue system
• It will now play a sound when selecting an audio option (armor beep, armor break, hit beep, kill beep)
• Fixed winning / neutral / losing music in objective & round-based modes (CTF / Sac)
• Fixed detecting the correct mood (winning / neutral / losing) when switching soundtracks mid-match
• Increased the volume of the weapon switch sound
• Fixed an issue in the Say Command system that could have produced multiple say commands to be sent
• Fixed Dialogue VO cooldown that would cause some say commands to trigger text-only without VO

Playlist Queue Stats

• Enabled playlist queue size information in the Play Now UI
• In-Game: How many players are in a match on your datacenters for your current playlist selection
• In Queue: How many players are queuing on your datacenters for your current playlist selection
• Recommended: Our best datacenter recommendation considering both your ping and how many players are active on the datacenter

Bot Improvements

• Bots are now marked as Level 0 on in-game scoreboards so that they can be more easily identified by new players
• Fixed bots from having perfect aim for up to five seconds following the use of their abilities
• Fixed bots from targeting their own totems or turrets as enemies. This behavior would occur after dropping their deployable and then dying, causing them to lose track of their ownership
• Added the ability for bots to recognize incoming rockets and be able to intentionally dodge them, either by strafing or on some occasions jumping to the side to avoid either a direct rocket or splash damage from a predicated impact
• Improved bot’s side-to-side dodging, making less predictable
• Added the ability for bots to recognize when they are taking damage and to adjust their movement mechanics and goals
• Add a bot health management system that includes scaled urgency for picking up health depending on their health value, combat retreat when losing a fight, and refusing bad fights in the first place that they are not yet equipped to win
• In team games, when bots are in a team of at least 3 players, if the bot is in last place on their team, they will now improve their mechanical skills, becoming a better player and more effective teammate for as long as they remain in last place on their team

Spectator Fixes

• Fixed the spectator camera’s Auto-Follow behaviors, now when a follow mode is enabled it will immediately switch to an appropriate target if one exists (ie, power-up or soul carrier)
• Added Follow-Mode highlighting to the Spectator Hints UI to communicate what follow mode the spectator camera actively has enabled

Game Modes

• Fixed Sudden Death bug in games set with Scorelimit 0
• Fixed XP rewards for XP earned in games set with Scorelimit 0
• Added the Weapon Bar, Ammo UI, and the new Weapon Accuracy UIs to the Clan Arena and Slipgate spectator HUDs
• Breakables and Lore Scrolls will no longer spawn in game modes where Health items do not spawn, such as Clan Arena

Maps

Lockbox

• Item layout updated: the Heavy Machinegun is now near Mega Health and the Super Nailgn is now near Heavy Armor stairs.
• Corrected spawns that faced away from the weapon pickup

Tower of Koth

• We once again use the large version of Tower of Koth for FFA, TDM, and IG
• Duel, 2v2, and UHT still use the smaller version

Champion Updates

Ranger Dire Orb Updates

• Dire Orb collision size reduced by 40% from 1m to 0.6m radius
• Splash damage now falls off from full damage down to 50% damage based on the distance from origin of explosion
• When someone else destroys Ranger’s orb, Ranger will regain 50% of his cooldown

Additional Champions

• Death Knight: Fixed centered weapons moving to the right after ability usage
• Doom Slayer: Added VO dialogue for say binds
• Doom Slayer: Fixed Double-Jump from sometimes automatically triggering when jumping off the ground
• Galena: Fixed in-active player totems not appearing solid through walls and would appear the same as in-active teammate totems
• Nyx: Fixed Ghostwalk gun visibility issue after going invisible while holding the default Heavy Machinegun with a weapon shader applied
• Random: Fixed Ranger not being chosen by the RANDOM champion any mode where it would lock in a single selection for the entirety of the match, such as Duel
• Scalebearer: Fixed Scalebearer Bull Rush target detection
• Sorlag: Fixed centered weapons moving to the right after ability usage
• Strogg: Fixed Pro League outfit effects in the main menu
• Strogg: Fixed an issue that could cause the Strogg player model from entirely vanishing when entering or exiting cloak
• Strogg: Fixed the cloaking particle effects when entering or exiting cloak

Main Menu UI

• Fixed the persistent blur effect in the main menu after escaping the Battle Report
• Fixed repeated ranked sequences and improved Battle Report navigation
• Fixed missing K/D data on Battle Report statistics
• Fixed the sorting of bot names in the Custom Game Lobby Add Bot dropdown list to now be alphabetical
• Fixed the Champion Roster from closing after making a champion selection while in the Weapon Customization menu
• Fixed duplicate values in the Custom Game Score Limit, Time Limit, and Weapon Respawn Time dropdowns, adding support for them to now default to the correct value instead of the first in the list. We now also mark the default value for easy identification
• Fixed the Armor Break FX setting description
• Fixed changing podiums in customizations not automatically refreshing the actively loaded podium
• Fixed the head icon art for Random in the bot dropdown list

Vanity Items

• Fixed Weapon Shader loadout saving
• Fixed vanity items that didn’t receive Quad Damage or Protection power-up effects
• Fixed Skull & Bone Podium texture quality

Datacenter Updates

• We have reduced the number of datacenter locations, consolidating more players into the same server locations to provide faster MatchMaking. We recommend that you check your selected datacenters in-game and utilize the new Playlist Queue stats to help determine the best datacenters to use when searching for matches.

Naturally, Quake’s 25th birthday is kind of a big deal, so Bethesda is celebrating the only way that makes sense: by adding content from the original game to Quake Champions. The game’s summer update, which is slated to release in early July, will add the classic DM6 map, The Dark Zone, to Quake Champions. In addition to the map itself, the update will also add several weapons from the original Quake that players can unlock and use.

In addition to the in-game updates, Bethesda is also planning to create several retrospectives on the series, as well as interview several of the developers who worked on it. My money’s on Quake designer John Romero showing up at some point, as well.

For full details on what Bethesda’s planning for Quake’s 25th birthday, you can head here.

Fallout and The Elder Scrolls publisher Bethesda Softworks has announced a new office opening in Moscow, Russia. The new office will help with Bethesda’s current roster of games, and presumably with future titles. Simeon Chirikov is managing director, and along with experience at Electronic Arts, he’s also worked at Wargaming, which developed the popular World of Tanks.

The Moscow office will have other functions – along with overseeing sales in Russia and CIS, it will also handle marketing. In a recent statement, Bethesda Europe managing director Sean Brennan stated, “The opening of the office in Moscow is a very exciting moment for Bethesda.

“We have an incredible roster of upcoming games including Fallout 76, The Elder Scrolls: Blades, RAGE 2, Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot, Wolfenstein: Youngblood and DOOM Eternal, as well as a number of live titles that continue to perform well including The Elder Scrolls Online, Quake Champions, and The Elder Scrolls: Legends. Simeon’s extensive knowledge of the Russian and CIS markets will help us to maximize and deliver upon all these titles’ potential.”

This will be Bethesda’s ninth office worldwide, joining key publishing locations like London, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Sydney, and so on. Currently, Bethesda Game Studios is working on Fallout 76, which will be going into beta on October 23rd for Xbox One and October 30th for PS4 and PC. The game will officially launch on November 14th, but the studio also has Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 in development for the future.

While we’ve already seen characters from other franchises in Quake Champions, such as the Doom Slayer from, well, DOOM, and William “BJ” Blazkowicz from Wolfenstein, we’ve always wondered if more characters from different series would show up in the game. And it’s always seemed like a possibility- after all, the people over at id Software have stated in the past that they would like to see more characters from Bethesda titles crossing over into the online shooter. Now, in a recent interview, id’s Community Developer Joshua Boyle has also spoken more about the possibility of bringing characters from Bethesda’s games.

While speaking with IGN, it certainly seemed like Boyle was keen about bringing crossover characters to the game. He stated that there is currently no FPS title with crossover characters, and there definitely seems to be a market for that. He also discussed bringing in some very unique maps to the game as well. As of now, neither of these prospects are out of the realm of possibility.

Boyle stated, “As soon as I got hired on, I was like ‘we’re doing that, right?’… This is something that somehow hasn’t existed in FPS, and we have such a great space for it… Arena [shooters] aren’t that different than how it is in Smash, where it’s like ‘this is the theme of Animal Crossing or this is the theme of that game,’ but we haven’t gone too nuts yet with maps at all, and I’m not saying we will or we won’t. I think already the proof is in the pudding, in the sense that we’re not just stuck to all these different Quake franchise [characters] that are from different iterations of Quake. We’ve already got Doom and we’ve already got B.J. in, which are obviously id pillars, right? It’s definitely not out of the realm of possibility that, you know — Bethesda and ZeniMax have a very wide umbrella that we’re all under. It’s definitely, I’d say, in high consideration.”

We’ll just have to wait and see if there are further developments regarding varied maps and crossover characters in Quake Champions. The game is currently in Early Access on Steam, but about a month ago, was free to download (permanently) for a week’s duration. Did you get in on it? Tell us in your comments.

DOOM and Wolfenstein may be the classic id Software franchises that get all the attention, but Bethesda has actually done a pretty marvellous job of bringing back Quake as well, as the multiplayer hero shooter Quake Champions.

Quake Champions has been available in Early Access for a while, and while that hasn’t changed yet, Bethesda is now going to make it free to play for everyone- at least for a while. For this week, from June 10 to June 17, you can download the game from Steam for free- and if you do, you get to keep it forever, no strings attached. But if you don’t get it by then, well, it goes without saying you can’t get it for free anymore.

It’s a fun game, and since it’s free, there’s no harm in checking it out- even if you don’t have a PC, you can redeem the game, and just play it if you ever do end up with a rig capable of running it. It’s no lose all around, basically.

Bethesda has announced that Quake Champions, its free to play multiplayer shooter on PC, will soon be getting bots- which should make it more palatable to those who want to play it, but who shy away at the prospect of playing with others. Bots will be highly sophisticated, being able to pull off all the tricks and maneuvers that players can. To ensure they’re not too intimidating, players will be able to set on of six difficulty levels for them on a sliding scale.

Interestingly enough, an offline mode itself has not yet been confirmed for the game- so the bots will slot into multiplayer games instead. I have to imagine that an offline mode against just the bots is coming soon, especially since the actual hard part is now done and out of the way.

Quake Champions is available now, exclusively on PC. You can check out the video with technical director John Dean announcing the introduction of bots to the game below.

Bethesda Softworks revealed details about some upcoming content to Quake Champions during PAX East which had taken place recently. An upcoming update will add some major changes to the game including a new champion called Strogg, a new map called ‘Awoken’, along with other changes. The company also discussed the eSports competitions that they will be hosting for the game.

The new hero Strogg will come with a sidekick called Peeker which is an AI drone which players can control to fire explosives at enemies. Enemies killed by Strogg will leave behind an nutritional paste called Stroylent that increases the champion’s health. However, you’ll have to be careful as an enemy Strogg champion could steal this paste when possible. The new map called ‘Awoken’ will be available in the following modes: Duel, Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch, Instagib, and 2v2. There’s also lots to look forward to in terms of eSports competition as the company has announced that they will be hosting 4 such eSports events.

The first of these will be held at Dreamhack Tours for a prize pool of $50,000. The other tournaments include the one at this year’s QuakeCon, an event at PGL in October, and the Quake Champions Invitational which will begin in December. There will also be various other online events held throughout the year.

You can check out the new trailer introducing the new Champion below.

Call of Duty 2018

A new Call of Duty will be releasing this year. Surprise, surprise. Given how we know Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games have had their turn, Activision would confirm that Treyarch is up next. Even more surprises! Now, the rumours that this may be Call of Duty: Black Ops 4? Even less surprising but it would be interesting to see where the franchise goes, especially given the augmented reality/mind-jacking mess that was Black Ops 3.

Star Citizen

Star Citizen is going to be amazing…when it’s finally done. Imagine a huge open universe to explore with large space ships (which you can captain), first person shooter levels with zero gravity, unique planets with their own culture and laws and of course, the freedom to do whatever. That’s not even taking the single-player component Squadron 42 into account which boasts hours of story and features high profile actors like Mark Hamill and Gillian Anderson.

Quake Champions offers a variety of options for monetization, including purchasing and free to play options. The free to play version allows the player to use The Ranger, and purchase other heroes much like Killer Instinct. The game is not expected to launch on consoles due to hardware limitations and the focus on fast pace that demands the mouse and keyboard.

• 1. Development
• 2. Gameplay
• 3. Characters

Development

At an early point in the development of Quake Champions, then going by the project title ‘Lovecraft’, the game was originally considered as an expansion to Quake Live, itself a 2010 remade version of Quake III Arena, itself a 1999 game that has remained popular on the e-Sports circuits. As they played with the expansion idea, the development of DOOM 2016 caught their attention and the title moved into becoming its own thing, with Saber Interactive being brought in to assist with development.

Quake Champions was first announced at E3 2016 with a simple debut trailer outlining the intention of being a rebirth of the arena shooter and its e-Sports focus. The game would feature a large cast of playable characters each with their own unique skill set and due to the pace of the game and e-Sports focus, was announced as a PC only title. Because they wanted to focus all their efforts on creating a multiplayer shooter, there is no single player mode in Quake Champions.

Later at Quake-con 2016, creative director Tim Willits revealed that the game would run on a hybrid engine made up of id Tech and Saber Tech, instead of id Tech 6, which powered games like DOOM 2016. The unique engine meant that Quake Champions would not see a number of features from DOOM right out of the gate, such as Virtual Reality, Vulkan API, SnapMaps and Mod support, though the latter could come later. The game entered a closed beta period on April 6, 2017 and would enter Early Access on Steam as of August 23, 2017.

Even prior to launch, id has already begun introducing new characters to the roster, announcing at E3 2017 that William ‘B.J’ Blazkowicz from the Wolfenstein series would be playable, followed by the Doom Slayer from the Doom series, revealed in August.

Gameplay

While the game is very much rooted in the lovecraftian, gothic lore of the series, there is no single player story mode in the game, as that was not what the development team wanted to focus on.

Quake Champions is a multiplayer focused, competitive arena-style, character based shooter, taking inspiration primarily from past entries like Quake 3 Arena and the character driven abilities from the MOBA genre and games like Overwatch. The game has a selection of heroes (called Champions) to choose between, all with their own passive abilities and active abilities, which we will go in depth in a bit. The abilities are based on a counter system and players will have to discover how those intermingle. Character customization will be included, such as hats.

Unlike many modern shooters, there are no loadouts, instead making players find new weapons on the battlefield. Players choose to begin with either the Machine Gun, Shotgun or Nailgun, and can find the Heavy Machine Gun, Lightning Gun, Railgun, Super Nailgun, Super Shotgun and rocket launcher around the map. And because it wouldn’t be Quake without it, there is Rocket Jumping in the game.

The game will feature leagues and ranks, and modes will include 1V1 or free for all styles. Game types include Free-For-All, Sacrifice, Duel and Team Deathmatch, while also allowing custom games between friends. There are currently 8 different maps in the game.

Characters

Quake Champions is confirmed to release with 12 different heroes, though only 11 have currently been revealed.

The Quake Ranger is the starting champion that free players will always have access to. He is the most rounded of the champions, and has the passive ability “Son of a Gun” which means he takes 20% less self inflicted damage from any weapon. His active ability, the Dire Orb, is a multifunctional projectile.

Anarki is a transhuman champion who has replaced much of his body with cybernetic enhancements. He has a passive ability of Air-control, allowing him to change his movement direction while in midair, and an active ability to immediately restore his health and add an extra point to his health pool which he can build over a match.

B.J ‘Terror-Billy’ Blazkowicz from the Wolfenstein series joins as a playable character with the passive ability Blitz, which regenerates him to the nearest quarter of his health bar when he takes damage, and an active ability to Dual Wield, both mechanics adapted from recent Wolfenstein games.

Clutch is a mining automaton gone berserk and driven into the Nightmare. Something of a tank character, Clutch has a huge pool of health and slower movement. His three passive abilities are Still Defense, where he’ll take 20% less damage while standing still, Acceleration where he’ll move faster in a straight line, and dodge where double tapping in a direction will cause him to hop in that direction. His active abilities are Barrier Shield, where he generates a spherical shield and a Mining Drill, a version of the Lighting Gun with less damage but no ammo consumption.

The Doom Slayer is the second guest champion in the game, with a look and backstory straight out of DOOM 2016. His active ability is Berserk, where like in his home game, he’ll gain increased speed and be able to punch his enemies with enough force to cause them to explode into viscera. His passive abilities include his double jump and being a silent protagonist. Yes that is an ability, because he won’t be spouting off quips, he can better conceal his map presence.

Galena is a new character, implied to be from id’s Hexen universe. The closest thing the game has to a healer, her Active is Totem, which gives teammates and herself an instant 50 point health recovery within its radius, and kills any enemy caught within. Her passive will automatically reduce her cool down timer each time she picks up health bubbles.

Nyx is from a peaceable Melem people who sent away their greatest warrior, her. Their ability to phase into another dimension momentarily, or Ghost Walk, is her Active which allows her to move undetected and invulnerable for a short time. She can wall jump as her passive, offering her some extra mobility.

Scalebearer is a hulking beast of a fighter, Warlord from the marauding Greiss. He conquered countless worlds with the active ability Bull Rush, which sends him charging forward like a steam engine, and his Passive Heavyweight allows him to damage enemies with his weight alone if he’s moving fast enough.

Slash returns from Quake III Arena, and is just as crazy as before. Her active is a Plasma Trail which can damages anyone who enters it, and she can set it to explode. Her passive is the Quake 4 Slide.

Sorlag is a proud Sorg Warrior and the best hunter in her clan, returning from Quake III Arena. Her passive Bunnyhop allows mid air control changes of momentum and her active Acid spit does an area of effect acid attack. Visor is the result of Moscow’s GRU experimentation, able to use enhanced sight despite the mask covering his face. His Active, Piercing Sight allows him to see his opponents through walls for a short time, and his passive Grasshopper allows him to strafe jump.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.