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GamerBlipsAug 31, 2007
Over eight years after its release Quake III Arena is still one of the most played deathmatch games on PC, but id Software has set its sights on expanding the online shooter's playerbase with the free-to-play Quake Zero.
"We want to see the player base grow and that's a lot of what's behind Quake Zero," id CEO Todd Hollenshead told us. "We think there are a lot of people out there that would play Quake III if it didn't cost any money to buy it."
Quake Zero is a web-based version of Quake III funded entirely by in-game advertising.
"The Quake Zero approach is to have it readily available and anyone can play it," said Hollenshead. "It's focused more on the sporting element. We want to get that done, get that in to people's hands and get some feedback from them.
"Instead of having it supported by a retail model," he continued, "it's really an Olympus test to see if we can support games with an advertising model. That's really where we're expecting a lot of the revenue to come from; sponsorships etc.
"[Quake III] for pure deathmatch is still the most popular game - and that doesn't even include the GameSpy stuff and people playing on LAN. Quake Zero is a test of the continuing popularity of Quake." We're all for introducing fresh noobs to frag.
"We're going to use that to grow the Quake universe," says Hollenshead.
