Quake Champions had a rough ride. After the high reception of Doom 2016, the reaction when a new Quake was unveiled were ecstatic. But it didn’t set the world on fire so to speak.
It was always free via the Bethesda Launcher. Then it launched on Steam via Early Access which requires a buy-in. At E3 2018, it was given away for free on Steam for a limited time- those who downloaded during that period gets to keep it permanently.
Now at Quakecon 2018, they have announced the game is now completely free-to-play.
Quake Champions is now FREE TO PLAY! Get into the Arena on Steam or the https://t.co/VKFjPPCSFd Launcher! pic.twitter.com/joyc5LWpUt
— Quake Champions (@Quake) August 10, 2018
Despite now being free, it is still considered Early Access on Steam. “There is still additional polish, improvements and new content – like the upcoming Capture the Flag mode – that we want to get into the game before we declare it ‘fully released,” reads the news release on the official site.
However, the development team has outlined a roadmap on what new content we can expect, including the CTF mode mentioned, here:
Source: Quake Champions