Quake Live, id Software's free-to-play version of its hyper-competitive FPS, will begin the transition from browser-based experience to complete standalone game, available by the end of the year.

id Software says that Google Chrome's movement to do away with plugins, as well as Firefox's changes to how it will handle plugins, has fueled its decision to go standalone. Active players will only need install a launcher that will update existing local game files - Mac and Linux will no longer be supported in the standalone version - and all player stats are transferable.

Quake Live was first announced in 2007 as Quake Zero, a browser-based version of Quake 3.