Frag for free as Quake Champions drops its initial entry fee
Rocket-jumping will never not be awesome
Ever since Quake Champions first bunny-hopped onto the scene, we've known that it would go free-to-play, but Id Software kept a price-tag on it during its initial months of public testing. During their QuakeCon keynote mere moments ago, they announced that now (and forever), Quake Champions is free-to-play. While you can earn characters through play, the option still remains to buy all present and future champions outright, and this pack is on sale, too.
It's been a busy few months for Quake Champions, but the last few updates have hammered the game into a state far more fitting for public consumption. There are now bots available for either co-op 'comp stomp' training, or for use in custom matches, so you can warm up with the AI if you don't feel confident with real human players yet. They also recently introduced a new playable character - the Death Knight from Quake 1 - and announced a bundle more playmodes coming in the next few months.
While its nature as a twitchy arena shooter means that Quake Champions will never be an Overwatch-scale mega-hit, it's been consistently well populated over the past couple months, and today's release should see a significant influx of fresh blood to be splattered all over the walls. Don't worry too much about character choice - while special abilities can be useful, you're mostly going to be relying on the weapons the maps provide. Shoot straight.
Quake Champions is now free-to-play and available on Steam and via Bethesda's own launcher, but the Champions Pack (which unlocks all characters current and future) is discounted down to £13.19/€19.79/$19.79. It is still, technically, in early access.