Id Software & Bethesda Softworks have released a brand new trailer for their upcoming team based competitive First Person Shooter Quake Champions alongside news that beta sign-ups are now open on the games’ official website. According to the site the closed beta for Quake Champions could begin as soon as a couple of weeks from now.
Quake Champions was initially revealed last year at E3 and since then we’ve seen small glimpses of gameplay and a tournament at last year’s Quake Con. It is still not known if Quake Champions will be a full priced title or if it will be free to play. Quake.com outlines two different arenas, eight unique heroes and six deadly weapons that should be featured in the beta release.
Check out the trailer below, let’s hope that more information about the game will be released as the beta draws near, but if this closed beta is anything like the Doom beta – it will be covered under a non disclosure agreement.
Id Software, developers of this year’s breakout shooter DOOM and the upcoming Quake Champions, are looking to bring aboard an expert on in-game monetization according to a recent job posting found online. While it is highly improbable that this will have any impact on DOOM’s existing player base it could have ramifications for the mostly still under wraps Quake project that is supposed to have a larger presence / possible release next year.
The responsibilities of the “Monetization Designer” according to the job posting include “develop[ing] and manag[ing] the economy/monetization components for competitive multiplayer” as well as “balancing free vs. paid currency in the game economy” and that the successful candidate will “collaborate with the design team, analytics group, marketing and tech department”. It looks like whoever lands this position will have a lot of influence regarding a number of different facets of whatever project their involved with.
So, let’s talk about Quake Championship for a moment. While the game may have been in development for sometime it wasn’t unveiled until this past E3 and even then our in-game look was only through the lens of a highly edited cinematic trailer. QuakeCon 2016 brought some more news, screenshots and Twitch streams from pro gamers. The fact that Bethesda has not committed to disclosing a monetization method for the game and that as of that event developers stated that they hadn’t ruled out free to play means that there is still a possibility that this position is related to Quake Champions. How exactly a team based, role dependent FPS title would work is a bit of a mystery. Would they go the Paragon route and make all of the characters free but lock away skins and other items? Perhaps a lower priced “buy to play” model with additional maps and characters as in-game purchases? Maybe id will follow in Valve’s footsteps and give everyone hats!
This brings me to DOOM, Bethesda’s critical darling was lauded for its strong single-player campaign and excellent world building but the multiplayer left something to be desired. In the months after release Bethesda released 3 DLC packs that come packed with new weapons, mods and maps as well as releasing several free updates to the game that have expanded upon the Snap Map technology, allowing creators to produce small campaign like experiences. It is highly unlikely that DOOM will see further post-release support as Bethesda already positioned “Bloodfall” as the game’s last premium DLC. To make the multiplayer free-to-play is like reanimating the dead, even if it moves around the heart that beats underneath is still cold and lifeless. With DOOM Multiplayer only averaging 2000 – 2,500 average concurrent players on PC there doesn’t seem to be much hope of reviving this multiplayer blood bath.
Quake Champions is expected to have an open beta sometime next year.
Today at their pre-E3 press conference Bethesda revealed the rumored Quake reboot to the world and this re-introduction to id Software’s 1990s darling is probably not what a lot of people expected – an arena shooter.
Foregoing the series roots as a open ended corridor shooter Quake Champions aims re-live the glory days (or is that gorey days?) of Quake III arena with a focus on arena style combat. Bethesda says that the game will be accessible for players of all skill levels but will also offer options that cater to the series’ hardcore fans such as an unlocked frame-rate and 120hz monitor support.
A Shot From 1999’s Quake III Arena
After watching the debut trailer, which you can also enjoy in the embedded trailer below, I can’t help but wonder if Quake Champions can learn from last month’s DOOM. The single player of DOOM was absolutely excellent but the game’s multiplayer was not so well received. Featuring generic announcer voices, an odd lack of ambient music during key moments in firefights, a paltry selection of weapons and over powered demon summons – DOOM’s multiplayer pretty much has written the book on HOW NOT to make an arena shooter in 2016.
Bethesda’s pre-launch marketing for DOOM’s multiplayer hailed it as a return to the arena shooters of old and with the announcement of a season’s pass and a lukewarm reception to the game’s open beta it was a foregone conclusion that they would take another stab at building a lasting multiplayer shooter. They’re promising a focus on e-sports combined with character specific abilities abilities and certainly Blizzard’s Overwatch proves that there is a market for such a product, but with contenders like Paragon up and coming – is it took late for one of the FPS team arena champions to make a return?
We’ll find out more about Bethesda’s plans for Quake Champions at this August’s Quakecon. Until then we can just keep watching the debut trailer over and over….
Broken Joysticks’s staff are on location in Los Angeles for E3 2016. Follow us on Twitter for all of our latest articles & more, we will be attending both the Microsoft and Sony E3 press briefings later today.
