GDC 2008: Quake Live to be free ad-backed web game

A large chunk of future games might be free-to-play and depend solely on revenue from in-game advertisements and paid downloadable content. Ad-backed games stand to revolutionize the games industry and the revolution might have just commenced. In January 2008, EA announced an ad-backed online multiplayer game Battlefield Heroes and, now, id Software has heralded its own free ad-backed game, Quake Live.

Quake Live is essentially a free version of Quake Arena III that was released in 1999. id Software, the publisher of the popular Quake series of games, has entrusted IGA Worldwide with the job of bringing in-game ads to Quake Live.

Quake Live will be a web-based game and gamers will be able to compete with each other through QuakeLive.com from the comforts of their web browser. The game website is still not up and there is no official word on when that will happen. The game’s website will also be packed with community features, matchmaking, game stats, sponsored events, tournaments and friends lists. One can expect many more old titles to return as free games, as they will not have much trouble attracting advertisers due to their proven mass appeal.

Read [Next-Gen] Also Read [ExtremeTech]