Quake Champions 1.31 Drops Free-to-Play and the Microsoft Store Together
In its 1.31 FAQ, id Software announced the change directly: "Quake Champions has moved to a paid ownership model available on Steam." Bethesda says the storefront change is part of the same update: the Microsoft Store version has been retired, and the game is now available only through Steam. Shacknews independently reported the switch as a paid model for new players in a new update that has been launched today.
New buyers pay about $10. DualShockers reports that the new price for Quake Champions is $9.99 only on the Steam platform. Shacknews gives the same figure, saying new players can get Quake Champions and all of its unlocked content for $10.
The game has changed business models before. When it left Steam Early Access in August 2022, the community site Church of Quake noted that it became fully available on not only the Microsoft Store, but also on X-box GamePass. Four years after arriving on Microsoft's own store, the game is going back to Steam alone. Plus Forward reports that the change completes a transition that first appeared in PTS testing earlier in September. PTS is the game's public test server.
Previous Players Keep Access, but Microsoft Store Players Must Act by October 7, 2026
Eligibility depends on where you played. Bethesda's rule is broad: if you ever played the free-to-play version of Quake Champions, you are eligible to play the updated "paid app" version at no additional cost. The only catch is that the paid version runs on Steam and nowhere else.
Steam players
Steam players don't need to do anything. If you played Quake Champions before September 23rd, 2026, you can continue to access the game from your Steam library at no additional cost.
Microsoft Store players whose Bethesda.net account is already linked to Steam
If your Bethesda.net account is already linked to Steam, access should arrive automatically. Bethesda says that in this case you will automatically receive access to the paid version of Quake Champions on Steam. (Please allow up to 48 hours for this to happen.)
Microsoft Store players who never linked a Steam account
Players with no Steam link have to set one up during the migration window. Bethesda's process is:
- Create a Steam account if you don't already have one.
- Sign in to the Bethesda.net account you used to play Quake Champions. It has to be that exact account.
- Link the Bethesda.net account to Steam using Bethesda's account-linking page.
- Wait up to 48 hours. Bethesda grants the Steam app through your Bethesda.net account after the link is made.
You'll know it worked when Quake Champions shows up in your Steam library. Bethesda says the automated service runs from September 23 through October 7, 2026.
Missed the window or still waiting after 48 hours
After the window closes, or if linking didn't work, you'll need Bethesda's support team. Bethesda says Customer Support will look at these cases and may grant Steam access case by case. You first create or sign in to your Steam account and link it to the Bethesda.net account you played on, then submit a support ticket asking for the Steam version. The word to notice is may: late requests are not guaranteed, so it's safer to link your accounts before October 7.
Bethesda's FAQ only talks about "Microsoft Store players." It doesn't say anything separately about people who played through PC Game Pass, so anyone in that group should assume the same account-linking route applies and act inside the window.
Where Platinum, Shards and the Store Went in Update 1.31
The economy changes are mostly good news for players. Anyone who has Quake Champions in their Steam library can select any of the Champions, weapon skins, and cosmetic options without additional in-game purchases. Both virtual currencies are gone: Platinum, which was bought with money, and Shards, which were earned by playing. Items that used to cost either currency are now picked from the Customization menu, which update 1.31 moves to the top navigation bar of the main menu.
According to Shacknews' copy of the patch notes, the list of removals goes well beyond currency. The notes list removed microtransactions and in-app purchases, the battle pass, weekly and event challenges, the store, loot boxes, daily login rewards, and the shard-based champion progression path. A few items stay restricted. Third-party entitlements such as the AMD Ruby Nyx skin, and merit rewards like QuakeCon Belts and Golden Crowns, stay hidden from Customization unless you already own them. Golden Crowns can still be earned by reaching Elite rank.
Your progress carries over as long as you use the same account. Bethesda says your player profile will remain the same, provided you are using the same Bethesda.net account as before. Rankings are tied to the Bethesda.net identity rather than the storefront, so a Microsoft Store player who links a different Bethesda.net account to Steam could lose them. That's one more reason to link the account you actually played on.
Recent Platinum purchases are refunded. Bethesda will refund any Platinum pack bought in the 60 days before September 23, 2026, and says refunds take five to seven business days to process. Purchases made in Japanese yen get a longer window: anything bought in the six months before September 23 qualifies, as required by local law. Platinum bought earlier than those windows is simply gone, and Bethesda points out that everything it could have bought is now free anyway.
Patch 1.31 Looks Like the Last Content Update
Along with the business-model change, update 1.31 is a large patch. It adds three weapons: the QCON 2026 Starting Machinegun, Shotgun and Nailgun. It also adds a new leveling system with a cap of Level 999, with 24-hour Haste bonus XP every ten levels. Player levels now appear on the scoreboard, and bots show as Level 0, which makes new accounts and AI opponents easy to spot.
Some changes deal with problems a paid multiplayer game tends to run into. A new callvote system lets players vote to kick cheaters or abusive players. It needs at least four players in the match and allows each player three votes per match. The patch also fixes an anti-cheat false positive that appeared as an Error 103 message, along with several crashes during map loading. Bethesda says it has cut the number of datacenters to fit players into fewer server locations and speed up matchmaking, and it recommends checking your selected datacenters in-game.
For PC players, the patch reworks the frame-rate limiter's precision and pacing and adds an adaptive FPS stabilizer. It also improves threaded input for high-polling-rate mice and reduces the amount of network data sent per player.
Future support is where the news turns less positive. DualShockers reports that no additional content updates for the game are planned, so what you'll be getting is existing Quake Champions content, of which there are 30 seasons' worth. Plus Forward separately says the official release announcement states that no additional content updates are planned at this time. Shacknews says that when it asked about the future of the game or the franchise, Bethesda was unable to comment on that at this time beyond the update. Taken together, the $9.99 buys a finished game with everything unlocked, not a live service with a roadmap.
The Xbox Restructuring Is Context, Not a Stated Cause
The DualShockers headline ties the change to Microsoft's restructuring of Xbox, and the timing is close. On September 22, one day before update 1.31, Xbox content chief Matt Booty told staff in a memo published on Xbox Wire that Microsoft is eliminating 268 roles across Halo Studios, other first-party studios, and the management and central-functions layer of Xbox Game Studios. He wrote that the actions taken since July, including studio divestitures, bring Xbox "roughly three-quarters of the way" through the restructuring announced earlier in the year.
The same memo reorganized the studios. Activision takes on World's Edge and Rare, and a new team there will develop the next Halo. Bethesda, the publisher of Quake Champions, now includes Obsidian, which continues work on Grounded and a new Fallout project with Bethesda Game Studios. King absorbs Microsoft Casual Games, and Playground and Turn 10 merge into one studio focused on Forza and Fable. Booty also said two agreements to divest Ninja Theory fell through and that consultation on a proposed closure will begin, while consultation with Arkane continues through the end of the year.
Neither announcement links the two events. Booty's memo doesn't mention Quake Champions, and Bethesda's FAQ doesn't mention the restructuring. The game had also been tested on the PTS earlier in September, before the memo came out. Ending in-game purchases and freezing development on an older live-service game fits the "fewer business units" direction Booty described, but that is an inference from the timing, not something Microsoft or Bethesda has said.
The storefront decision still matters to Windows users whatever the reason behind it. A first-party Microsoft studio has pulled one of its PC games from the Microsoft Store and made Steam the only place to buy it, and players who chose Microsoft's store now need a Steam account to keep playing.
What Quake Champions Players Should Do Before October 7
If you played on Steam, you don't need to do anything. If you played through the Microsoft Store, link your Bethesda.net and Steam accounts now instead of waiting for support tickets after the deadline. New players should decide whether a $9.99 arena shooter with everything unlocked and no further updates planned is worth it.
- Microsoft Store players must link the Bethesda.net account they played on to Steam by October 7, 2026, and should allow up to 48 hours for the game to appear in their Steam library.
- Access requested after October 7 is handled case by case through a Bethesda Customer Support ticket and is not guaranteed.
- Rankings, stats and your profile carry over only if you keep using the same Bethesda.net account.
- Platinum bought in the 60 days before September 23, 2026, is being refunded automatically within five to seven business days, and yen purchases qualify back to six months.
- All champions and nearly all cosmetics are unlocked for every owner, while third-party promo items and merit rewards stay limited to people who earned them.
- New buyers pay $9.99 on Steam for a game that, according to the release announcement, has no further content updates planned.
The game's likely future is now clear. Update 1.31 cleans up the anti-cheat, matchmaking and PC performance, removes every monetization system, and leaves Quake Champions as a one-time Steam purchase with 30 seasons of content and no roadmap. The only deadline is October 7, 2026, when the automated migration for Microsoft Store players closes and any remaining requests go through Bethesda support.