Quake Champions now costs $9.99 for new players on Steam, ending the arena shooter’s free-to-play access for anyone who had not used the game before Update 1.31. Players who accessed it before September 23, 2026, can continue playing at no extra cost.
The new arrangement covers players who previously used either Steam or the Microsoft Store. Steam users were automatically moved to the paid version, while Microsoft Store players can continue on Steam for free by linking their Bethesda accounts. The Microsoft Store version has been delisted, leaving Steam as Quake Champions’ only storefront.
New players can purchase the game through the Steam store page. The default offering also includes classic skins for Quake Ranger and Doom Slayer, alongside the existing package of 30 seasons of content.
Existing players keep their profiles and rankings after the conversion. Players who bought Platinum during the previous 60 days also receive a full refund for those purchases. New players receive the existing package, including 30 seasons of content, while no further content updates are planned. That makes the $9.99 price a move away from the former microtransaction service rather than the opening of another live-service cycle.
The change closes out roughly eight years of free access. Quake Champions entered early access in 2017, adopted its free-to-play model in 2018, and received its 1.0 update in 2022 before moving away from that structure with Update 1.31.
Valve’s Steam announcement describes the update as a “new chapter” for Quake Champions. Alongside the new access model, the release removes most of the game’s live-service economy and replaces it with a broader set of unlocked content and progression features.
Today’s update marks a new chapter for Quake Champions as we transition the game from a free-to-play service to a paid application on Steam
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Update 1.31 removes Quake Champions’ live-service economy
Update 1.31 removes the Battle Pass, weekly and event challenges, the store, Platinum and Shard currencies, loot boxes, daily login rewards, and Champion Progression. All Champions are unlocked for everyone.
Most vanity content is now available to all users through the Customization menu. Third-party entitlements, including AMD Ruby Nyx, the Twitch Rocket Launcher, and the Nvidia Pulsar Railgun, remain hidden unless a player already owns them. Merit-based items such as QuakeCon Belts and Golden Crowns retain their existing restrictions, although Golden Crowns can still be earned through ranked rewards by reaching Elite Rank.
Players who purchased Platinum during the previous 60 days receive a full refund, while Champions, weapon skins, and costumes that were previously tied to Platinum or Shards are available through Customization without another purchase.
The conversion also keeps the game’s existing content and adds 30 seasons of material, along with new weapons, weapon shaders, a podium, and five Team Arena Clan profile icons. A new leveling system reaches Level 999, while profile levels appear on the in-game scoreboard.
Update 1.31 adds a Callvote system for dealing with cheaters and abusive players. A match needs at least four players before a vote can begin, each player can call up to three votes per match, and voting uses the existing “Yes” and “No” Say Command binds. Weapon accuracy displays, bold player-outline options, an Adaptive FPS Stabilizer, playlist queue statistics, and a wide set of gameplay, audio, network, bot, map, and Champion fixes round out the release.
Xbox restructuring provides wider context
The pricing change arrived shortly after an Xbox restructuring announcement on September 22. Xbox Chief Content Officer Matt Booty announced that 268 roles across Halo Studios would be eliminated, with redundancies also taking place across other first-party studios.
Activision is taking responsibility for the next Halo entry, while World’s Edge and Rare are joining its oversight. Bethesda is merging with Obsidian, which will continue work on projects including Grounded and a new Fallout project. Playground Games and Turn 10 are also joining as one studio focused on Forza and Fable.
No specific decision connecting Quake Champions’ paid model to those studio moves has been provided. For new players, the practical result is simpler. Quake Champions is now a one-time Steam purchase, while previous players keep the game and their progress for free.
Quake Champions Update 1.31 Patch Notes
Update 1.31 is more than a pricing change. The full patch also revises customization, adds new weapons and profile items, introduces new player and queue information, adjusts Ranger’s Dire Orb, improves bots, and addresses issues across maps, game modes, audio, input, matchmaking, and the main menu.
The complete notes are reproduced below in their original order.
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.
Will Quake Champions’ new paid model and unlocked customization give you a reason to return, or does removing its free access change the appeal too much? Share your take in the comments, then follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.
