The beta for id Software's free web-based Quake Live has opened to the public, but gamers can expect a very long wait to get their hands on the shooter.

As of press time, the queue to get in was over 46K players deep, with Quake Live's website declaring, "Quake Live is packed! Hold on while we let some people in." The queue has greatly lengthened during the course of the day. Earlier on Wednesday, the official Quake Live Twitter account read, "The systems have been performing fairly well. We are seeing launch day flood though the queue to get on the site hovers around 10K players."

At 10:30 a.m. PST, the Twitter also said that id is "currently testing improvements to the queue system." Administrators are letting in around 500 players per minute.

About six hours after launch, Quake Live had over 113K accounts player accounts.

Texas-based id Software is exploring new territory with Quake Live in that the game is completely Web-based and free-to-play. A partnership with in-game ad firm IGA Worldwide provides the basis for the game's business model.

The game features 30 arenas, five game modes and over 50 characters.

"We've taken the greatest online deathmatch game of all time and made it even better with skill matching, chat, stats tracking and a ton of other cool stuff. And we've made it totally free," said id CEO Todd Hollenshead in a statement.

In line with community gaming trends, Quake Live also integrates player profiles and achievement-based rewards and trophies.