The Quake Live website reveals that id Software's multiplayer shooter is now exclusively available on Steam, and now carries a $9.99 price tag, a surprising increase of infinity percent for what had been a free-to-play game (thanks Kotaku). This announcement does not specifically address the price jump, but it does explain the Steamworks functions that are now part of the game: "Today marks a new beginning for Quake Live. Last year we expanded our platform to Steam, and today we have retired our old launcher and services in favor of integrating a robust array of Steamworks alternatives. We are now fully utilizing Steam for Friends, Chat, Lobbies, Voice Chat, Server Browser, Statistics, Achievements, Anti-cheat, Trading Cards, and Workshop." The comments reveal a lot of discontent over this change, as players say this came without warning, and leaves players scrambling for refunds for money spent under the old business model. The announcement refers these complaints to customer support, but does not outline any established policy about how they will be handled. This is not the first time a change in policy has upset players of this online shooter, as it dropped OS X and Linux support when a standalone client was released in January 2014. Here's word on the latest changes to this reworked version of QUAKE III Arena:

Subscription Service Retired

By retiring our services and subscription service, all players now have the same benefits and features in-game. All players can participate in map voting processes, have full access to customize their game to the same degree as others, and have the ability to run their own Listen Servers and configure their matches to their own liking. Players wishing to have more control over how they play now also have new callvote options, allowing them to opt into some of our newer gameplay mechanics such as Starting Weapons, Global Ammo, and Item Timers. Over time we found that these features were effective in some modes more than others, and so modes like Free For All now have loadouts disabled by default.

If you have an active Pro subscription, and you failed to download the game through Steam before this launch, please contact customer support for assistance [www.quakelive.com].