quake-live posts

Last month, id Software launched two optional subscription packages for its free-to-play first person shooter Quake Live. Today id announced that it is giving its players a chance to try out one of the two subscription versions of the game for free. From now until September 26, players can sign up to access the Premium level content of Quake Live. That means players can access all of the content that's free to everyone else plus 20 extra maps, the Freeze Tag mode and extended stats storage.

In addition, players who decide to purchase a year of either the Premium ($1.99 per month) or the higher priced Pro subscription ($3.99 per month) during this period will be given a token for an extra month of those plans. That token can be used by the player to extend their subscription or it can be given to a friend.

August is almost at its end. We had lots of game announcements and reveals but what's waiting for us in September?

• Steam has released minor updates for Counter-Strike Source and Team Fortress 2.
• Steam also has a new update for Booster Trooper that adds a new map to the game.
• Steam has the Japanese-developed title Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale for pre-order at 10 percent off.
• GamersGate has a bunch of air combat-related games on sale this week only.
• Quake Live has a new update that adds, among other things, the ability for players to change team sizes in a match.
• Check out this video of a Grand Theft Auto IV mod that turns it into a first person shooter.

A few years ago, the game industry was all abuzz about how in-game advertising was going to be a brand new and significant revenue stream for game developers and publishers. And then in 2008 the "Great Recession" hit the ad industry in general like a ton of bricks. The chairman of one of the leading in-game ad companies, IGA Worldwide, Justin Townsend, admitted in March 2009 that it was trying to raise more funds and was even thinking of selling off the company.

Now that the economy is slightly better off (knock on wood) IGA Worldwide has announced that it has in fact secured new funding through new and existing sources. The company stated in a press release that it is "aggressively focusing on expanding our advertising product lineup, game portfolio and global reach for 2010 and 2011." Specific financial numbers for the privately held IGA were not revealed. It states that it has "an exciting line up of AAA game titles" for its services but specific games were not revealed.

QuakeCon 2010 may be the biggest single US-based PC gaming LAN party. It may also be the place for major game presentations and announcements. But it's also a place where first person shooter players can show their stuff in the Quake Live-based cash tournaments.

For the first time in QuakeCon history, regular attendees could put their name to be picked to play in an official Quake Live tournament to win some cash. Player "jovire" won the Open tournament and collected $1,500. In the official Quake Live CTF tournament, the US team Evil Geniuses won over European team fnatic for a $15,000 first place finish. Finally the big Quake Live 1v1 tournament was won by "cypher" in a very close match with opponent "coolleR" and picking up $14,000 for his efforts.

While QuakeCon 2010 is just a few hours away from shutting down until next year the organizers have posted up a video showing some of the activities in its BYOC area that you can check out after the jump:

id Software made headlines three years ago when it announced Rage, its first game that wasn't based on a previous id property since the original Quake was released in 1996. But it looks like id is going to be sticking to its franchises for a while and not branching out in all new territory anytime soon.

Computer and Video Games quotes Carmack as saying, "We do already have more IPs than we can exploit. " id launched the Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake shooter brands, all of which are among the most well known PC gaming franchises in history." Carmack says don't look for id to add to that line up beyond Rage, saying " It's scary to say it, but maybe not in the next decade even, because we want to support Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake - and hopefully we can add Rage onto that."

As we reported late on Friday, developer id Software has now taken Quake Live officially out of its open beta test period and has added two levels of paid subscription services in addition to its basic free-to-play service. With the new version of Quake Live now back online we know more about the new additions to the game.

One thing that people who pay to play Quake Live will get is a lack of advertising. Players who stick with the free service will have to check out ads while loading the game via Quake Live's web page but Premium and Pro subscribers won't have to deal with those ads appearing

A post on the game's forums gives more info on all the new features including the 20 new maps that are added for Premium and Pro subscribers (the map names are listed after the jump). There are five all new maps in the update along with a new community-made map. The rest are maps that have been adapted from previous Quake III Arena community-created maps including Threewave CTF levels, Rocket Arena 3 maps and others. In addition, all of the previous Quake Live maps have gotten visual upgrades including support for ambient occlusion, dirt map lighting and true vertex lighting. There's also been some layout changes and even a few name changes for some of the maps.

Developer id Software launched Quake Live over a year ago but but now the free-to-play version of id's 1999 shooter Quake III Arena has finally exited the beta phase. While the game will remain free to play, id is now offering two subscriptions that add new content and features for its players.

The free Standard portion of the game will still include access to over 40 maps and five gameplay modes along with matchmaking, stats tracking, friends list and access to one clan team. The Premium subscription costs $1.99 a month (billed annually) and adds an additional 20 maps (with the promise of additional maps in the future) that are a combination of brand new levels and community-made maps from previous Quake games. It also adds the new Freeze Tag gameplay mode, premium level awards, stats that are stored for up to six months and the ability to join up to five clans or create your own.

The Pro subscription costs $3.99 a month (again billed annually) and has all of the features of the Premium mode plus the ability to start and run your own game server. You can pick the server location, set the gameplay mode and what friends you want to join in the server. You can also have up to three friends who play in the free Standard edition to play with you in any of the Premium maps. You can also join up to 10 clans in the Pro subscription, have access to pro awards and have stats stored for up to 12 months.

At the moment the QuakeLive web site is down for "maintenance" (presumably to relaunch with the new subscription services). The game has also got a new "T" rating from the ESRB.

Update: It took longer than expected but Quake Live is now back online with the new subcription plans and the new additions.

We are about two weeks away from the start of the 2010 edition of QuakeCon, the free LAN event/consumer game show sponsored by id Software and their new owners ZeniMax Media. The August 12-15 event in Dallas has just announced the main tournaments that will be held for the show which will include a chance for anyone attending QuakeCon to get in on the action.

For the pro gamers, QuakeCon will feature the Quake Live Masters Tournament with 64 players competing in 1 vs 1 matches in id Software's free-to-play shooter game. The grand prize winner gets $14,000. There will also be a Quake Live Capture The Flag Championship where 32 teams of four players will compete with the winning team getting $14,000. Finally there will be the Quake Live Open Championship for 128 QuakeCon attendees. Registration for that event happens on the first day of QuakeCon on a first come-first serve basis. The winning gamer in that tournament gets $1,500.

We've been waiting for a while for registration for QuakeCon 2010 to begin and now the official word has come in on how to registered for the annual free LAN-gaming event sponsored by id Software and its parent company Zenimax Media. Simply put there will be no internet-based registration. For the first time everyone who attends the event will register at QuakeCon itself at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, Texas on August 12-15

The press release states that the new on-site registration process is "designed to reduce the time BYOC (Bring-Your-Own-Computer) attendees spend waiting to register equipment." A post on QuakeCon's official forums a few weeks ago from one of the event's organizers mentioned there would also be a premium registration option for the BYOC area but today's press release makes no mention of any such option.

The press release also mentions that QuakeCon 2010 will once again feature Quake Live based pro gaming tournaments. For the first time, the tournaments will also have a 250-seat spectator area where attendees can watch the tournaments live.

id Software's free-to-play first person shooter Quake Live has been online for well over a year now and this week the game got a major new update with quite a few new features, changes and bug fixes. The biggest new addition is the player invite system which now allows friends to invite others into their games.

Other new features in the update include a way to mute blocked players, Firefox 3.6.3 support and more. id Software is also working on a new Premium (i. e. paid) Service that will allow players and leagues to purchase their own private Quake Live servers.