Quake Live Loses Beta Tag, Adds Two Subscription Plans to Go with Free Play

August 6, 2010 2:45 PM

Quake Live is "offline for maintenance" right now but when it returns it will be without the beta tag. It will also come with two new subscription packages to supplement the 'Standard' version which will continue to be free.

For $23.88 a year (that breaks out to $1.99 a month) you can get a 'Premium' subscription which includes:

Access to 20 QUAKE LIVE Premium only maps at launch with more to come. Premium maps are a combination of brand new maps and frequently requested community favorites from previous QUAKE games such as Aerowalk, Theater of Pain, Japanese Castles, and Realm of Steel Rats
An all new 'Freeze Tag' game mode
Exclusive premium level awards
Create your own clan and join up to five separate clans
Custom QUAKE LIVE profile wallpaper
Match statistics stored for six months

For twice that much, $47.88 a year ($3.99 per month), you get a 'Pro' subscription which includes everything in the Premium level plus:

The ability to start your own game server, specify a server location, determine the game mode and invite who you want to join you
With the Pro Subscription, you can invite three friends with Standard level memberships to play with you in any Premium level map
Exclusive pro awards
Create your own clan and join up to ten separate clans
Match statistics stored for 12 months

Free play in the standard version will continue as before with more than 40 arenas and five game modes. Friends lists, access to one clan, matchmaking, and in-browser stat keeping will also remain free.

Garnett Lee

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From The Chatty

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skizl

 reply
August 6, 2010 2:50 PM

Cross-posting my thoughts from the chatty!

Well, the game is fun, and $24/year is hard to complain about, especially with 20 new maps. I guess that the game just isn't drawing the ad support that they had hoped for or expected. The "pro" subscription offering the ability to let up to 3 pals play the premium maps for free is a bit of a balance, too. Also, private servers? Hard to pass up on that for what is really a pretty affordable price.

Aerowalk is one of my favorite Quake1 maps, so it's pretty much worth the cost of the basic subscription to me. I'm not excited at all about a "Freeze Tag" mode, but it could be fun I guess for people who want to mess around.

It will be interesting to see how the new maps cycle into the competitive scene. Will they catch on? Will people stick with the originals? How many different game types are really going to be represented here? Can they make a map that takes TDM to a new level in Quake Live? Or hey, maybe they can just transport over DM3! :D

Overall, somehow this makes the game seem a little more legitimate. Hopefully it catches on with some more people. I've been having a ton of fun with it since I found some shackers to play with on a more regular basis (Lionel/Monty and reelbk in particular) and I hope that the pay-to-play doesn't drive people away. Hopefully the buzz draws some more people in--here's hoping! :D
- lunatyk
  
   reply
  August 6, 2010 2:55 PM
  
  Or just buy Quake 3 on steam for 20 bucks and download all the custom maps you want.
  - skizl
    
     reply
    August 6, 2010 2:58 PM
    
    I have Quake3. It's cool if you're not into Quake Live, but I like the matchmaking, ease of finding games in my area, friends list, etc. It offers a lot for free or (now) for relatively little if you want more.
  - abjectblitz
    
     reply
    August 6, 2010 6:15 PM
    
    Exactly, already got Q3 so why bother. Q live is cool but I don't see why I should pay just for the whole browser UI that I can live without. Q3 and all the maps and mods will do me fine.. oh and I love my old gibs!!!
  - excessus
    
     reply
    August 6, 2010 6:50 PM
    
    Exactly, I already paid for Q3 back in the days, and I use ..::LvL to download all the maps I could dream with...
- dyslixec
  
   reply
  August 6, 2010 6:05 PM
  
  Yeah, I basically take the Pro Sub. as XBLA Gold but with the ability to invite silver members to join your games AND have the ability to choose the location of your hosted game rather than paying $60 a month for a clan server.
  
  Look at it this way... lets say you get 3 clan members with pro subscriptions and they all invite 3 people. Thats 12 people in, what really would be, a clan server. And with the ability to choose location, players can find host locations for their servers that provides the best stability for all of the players involved.
  
  I think this is definitely a step forward for QuakeLive and would probably bring the community closer together rather than apart. Especially with the ability to bring standard members into pro subscription maps / games. It will definitely be good for clans and community groups to say the least.