Quake Champions drops free-to-play, becomes a £9 game on Steam

After almost ten years as a free-to-play game, Quake Champions is changing course: it's becoming a paid release on Steam for £9. Battle passes, loot boxes, and premium currency are all being removed — the very things that frustrated players for years. According to Rock Paper Shotgun, this comes amid layoffs at id Software.

What exactly changed

Quake Champions long operated on a free-to-play model with aggressive monetization: seasonal passes, random rewards, and an in-game currency. Now the studio is abandoning that scheme in favor of a simple premium version. The price is £9, making it one of the most affordable paid shooters on Steam.

Why this matters for players

Dropping free-to-play is a rare move for a multiplayer game. Usually, projects go the other way: from paid to free. Here, the developers apparently decided that an honest price without microtransactions would retain the audience better. For players, this means one payment — and no extra spending on cosmetics or boosts.

How this connects to cross-border payments

If you buy games on Steam from Russia or another restricted country, £9 is an amount you need to process through an international payment tool. Virtual cards issued for global services let you pay for the purchase without linking a local card. This is especially relevant for those already using such solutions for subscriptions and other services.

Context: layoffs at id Software

The news comes amid reports of layoffs at id Software. The exact scale of the cuts hasn't been disclosed, but the monetization shift for Quake Champions may be part of a broader restructuring at the studio. For players, it's a signal: support for the game will continue, but in a new format.

What comes next is unclear. One thing is certain: the era of free Quake Champions is over. If you've been meaning to try it, the paid version is worth a look — it saves you from having to figure out currencies and passes.