Quake Live no Longer Browser-Based

Quake Live has transferred from browsers to standalone client.

The game arrives a little later than it was expected, which turns the browser game that is three years old into somewhat more traditional downloadable game.

Quake Live Client was announced in November and is available via Quake Live's website. The developers say that the transition "will allow us to have greater control over the game environment, and more tightly integrate the game with the online components going forward." Benefits players can expect are a smoother process of joining and leaving games and being able to see server pings while using the server browser.

Developers will now "dedicate more time to updating in-game features without the worry of how ever-evolving web browsers will affect gameplay and performance."

Quake Live will continue to be free to play, and the transition will have zero effect on the existing subscription model, at least for now. All stats, clans, and profiles are being transferred to the game client.

The only downside to this is that Mac and Linux clients are not available. It is reported that there has been some success in getting the game to work through emulation or virtualization, but support on either operating system is not guaranteed as the developers have stated, "We are unable to support native Mac and Linux versions."