Quake Champions executive director Tim Willits confirmed a few new details about the forthcoming arena shooter in a new interview. Notably, all future champions will be free to anyone who owns the full game, the closed beta is due to start in the next few weeks, and the game is being designed with eSports in mind.
Quake III: Arena is still on our list of the best shooters on PC. Here’s hoping Quake Champions lives up to its predecessors.
Willits was speaking to Russian eSports site GoodGame.ru, and accordingly, the original interview is in Russian. However, a translation by Artem ‘DieZel’ Volodin is available on ESReality.
According to that translation, Willits says the closed beta will start small, but will grow over time, and is due to start “in a few weeks”. You can sign up at quakechampions.com. The focus will be on stress-testing servers and getting the balance right – competitiveness is key for the game, as it will make a pitch to the eSports community.
“We are committed to have a large eSports presence,” says Willits. “We feel, after talking to a lot of pro players, that the one-versus-one (Duel) is something that is missing in the first-person eSports scene, as well as one eSports game mode which we’re currently working on (Sacrifice) based on a feedback from some number of pro players. So yes, we’re very focused on eSports. Quake has a long history of eSports and we definitely want to work with a number of partners to ensure that we will have as many tournaments as possible.”
Ranked matchmaking is also confirmed for both Duel and team-based game modes, and developers id Software are partnering with a third party to set up anti-cheat measures.
Expect to see much more of Quake Champions at QuakeCon this August.