Quake Champions E3 2016 01

Bethesda takes the wraps off Quake Champions

Bethesda showed off a new version of the renown Quake first-person shooter series as the opening announcement at its press and fan event today as a lead-in to this week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo.

The new game is Quake Champions, and it has some high-end graphics and fast first-person shooter gameplay. Bethesda will show more at Quakecon later this year. Tim Willets, head of id Software, said, “Yes, Quake is back. The game that defined competitive multiplayer is back.”

Ten of thousands of people still play Quake, and it’s still on the competitive gaming scene. The series is one of the landmarks for multiplayer first-person shooters in the 1990s.

“It is for players of all playstyles,” Willets said. “We know that high-end performance is critical for this type of game. Quake Champions will be fast, running at 120 hertz. You will get heart-stopping action as you fight on the edge of your seat.”

It will also have unique and bad-ass characters, he said.

Quake originally debuted in 1996, as id Software’s first major first-person shooter after the Doom series struk in 993.

Bethesda made the announcement at a press and fan event ahead of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) trade show in Los Angeles.

Bethesda unveiled Quake Champions.
Bethesda unveiled Quake Champions.Wi

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.