As Warframe plots a new course, its devs discuss how it keeps reinventing itself
There arent many games that get to celebrate a ten-year anniversary, but Warframe did just that in 2023, while this year it held its tenth Tennocon. This annual celebration of the game (and developer Digital Extremes upcoming Soulframe) is hitting the milestone in style, with the reveal of not only 2025s new Old Peace update, but the fulfillment of a promise made to fans back when it started - a new star system to explore in 2026.
Ahead of the reveal, I caught up with Megan Everett, Warframes Community Director, and Rebb Ford, Creative Director, to talk about what keeps Warframe going amid a challenging time for live service games, what went into making the TennoCon demo, and why this years new content is somewhat of a gamble after fans and newcomers fell in love with last years Warframe 1999.
Whether youre into Warframe or not, theres no denying the sheer spectacle of The Old Peaces TennoCon demo. Beginning with a standoff against a robot thats taller than a building and showcases the Tennos mobility, things flash backward and forward through time to fill in a story.
'We've been working on this demo for months and months and months and months and months'
As someone with only a cursory grasp of Warframe lore, its something far beyond what Digital Extremes has been able to commit to over the last 12 years. Thats not to say the game hasnt been ambitious, but this is a statement of intent for a new era of Warframe.
We've been working on this demo for months and months and months and months and months, Rebb Ford explained. As soon as one Tennocon ends, we're already planning the next one, and we try and push ourselves every single year, she adds, noting that the nervousness is always going to be there.
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We've been looking at this demo for months, so to us, we're like, is it even cool anymore? I dont know, what are they [fans] going to think?
As you can probably expect, the crowd went wild, with hundreds of dedicated Tenno locking in for the scene, but its a significant departure from last years showing of Warframe 1999. That was an X-Men-inspired prequel that captured the hearts of many with its ensemble cast and retro aesthetic, something Ford acknowledges is a gamble when returning to hard sci-fi.
The reception was really everything we could have asked for, Ford says about 1999. I am actually surprised at how much people liked it because we knew it was very different, she admits, while noting this years menu and last years offering are significantly different (prepare for more food analogies later).
'The reception was really everything we could have asked for'
It's one of those scenarios where if you look at the menu from last Tennocon, and here's your 1999 sci-fi X-Men story, and now here [this year] is your World War 1 trench warfare sci-fi story. It's the same restaurant and you have to hope that the people who liked the one thing will also like this.
When you go back to something quite classic like The Old Peace, you almost wonder if it's too familiar. Pablo and I, our design director, were sort of opining yesterday when some people on our team were saying, This is the best demo we've done and everything and we were like, 'But is it too familiar?' As Megan said we get so close to it we don't really understand the impact of what we might be showing for someone thats been a Warframe fan for 12 years, 10 years, one year, or a month.
It's so high risk every year to commit the entire team to one goal, and if the goal is slightly off base, what do you do?
One of the most impressive aspects of Warframe since it arrived in 2013 has been Digital Extremes willingness to experiment with it. The game began as a relatively straightforward action game with third-person shooting and melee combat, but it has since grown to incorporate open world regions (complete with fishing), ship-to-ship combat, and even a driveable motorcycle and a dating simulator added in Warframe 1999.
'It's so high risk every year to commit the entire team to one goal'
I was curious about what could come next and whether there are limits to what the games engine would allow.
Thanks to Soulframe, we are finding out those limits because they have a very specific vision for their world gameplay, Ford explains.
Every time I see an innovation, it's like, alright, that's going to go here and that's going to go there. I don't know if we would ever stop at a genre because its really about what's fun for us to make and play. If I had to wildcard what's coming next, it's hard to say.
Certainly, our procedural levels and our open world tech are the core of Warframe, and then you have all of these other things, but it depends on what we find fun and what we think we could make as a team, which is why we haven't really done PvP because we're not really PvP players and we dont know if we could lead a PvP project to success.
Pointing to Warframes relationship system, Everett explains, I think that's probably one of the last things someone ever thought Warframe would have is a quote-unquote dating romance instant messenger system.
And there are a lot of people, other people who are fans of games like that, with Persona, where they do it so well and they do it so authentically within the game. So when we were thinking about 1999, it was kind of like the right time for that type of thing.
'Our procedural levels and our open world tech are the core of Warframe'
One of the surprise announcements at this years TennoCon was that Warframe, after 12 years, is finally getting a Mod-specific tutorial quest, developed in collaboration with Sumo Digital. While fans certainly chuckled when it was revealed, Digital Extremes commitment to another cinematic quest is very telling.
We consider the transformation of Warframe as the open beta in 2013 and then two years later was the Second Dream, our first cinematic quest, Ford explains. A lot of people consider that particular update, the transformation from a grindy looter shooter into an actual campaign-based game, she adds, explaining that players tend to return for big story beats.
A player might skip an update that doesn't have a quest just because they know that when they come back for the quest, there's more to do if they come at that time. So, our investment in storytelling and the cinematic experience is because players responded so positively to it.
It became our plan two years into what we already thought we had as a plan. So, that's why you can never get too comfortable, because you may think you're making a looter shooter from 2013 to 2015, and then it turns out you're actually making a sci-fi space opera. But the one consistent thing is the story updates are the ones that generate the most interest from our community of all walks.
I was able to visit the teams motion capture studio, built within its London, Ontario premises, and Everett explains these were intended to help with cinematic quest development. With so many live-service games pulling players back with mechanics and loot, Warframe sees more players return with its new story content.
[The Second Dream] really showed us that players wanted that type of addition into the game. We use our time wisely, and our animation team and mocap team are able to just jump in there and make it happen because it was suddenly such a priority to our players for these cinematic experiences.
At the time of writing, it was recently announced that Steel Hunters, a game launched just a few months ago. Its the latest in a long line of shuttered live-service titles. Games like Marvels Avengers, Anthem, and Concord are all gone, all with huge budgets and one with a world-renowned IP. So, what is Warframes secret?
It's definitely time. It's definitely luck, Ford explains. I really do look at us as a Pom and Pop diner experience where it's the home of the Calzone pizza or something, right?
'It's definitely time. It's definitely luck'
We made this diner, we made this space, we were about to c,lose and then all of a sudden, Total Biscuit walks in and we accelerate into popularity because of one good food critic, she continues, referencing the late YouTube star who helped increase the games visibility.
And then we just kept it going because people kept eating our meals and they liked it and enough people heard about us that it was accessible, and they realized this is a Mom and Pop diner, she adds, while noting that Tencent acquired the company in 2020.
Then theres a new trend of restaurants, and more shops open up to crowd the market, but there is a benefit of sort of being there first, which I would say with some confidence that we were.
To me, it really isn't a competition, and it's always been a matter of we just love what we make. Its not like others dont, but if you were the first brick and mortar on the corner that started it, its very hard to compete.
Everett points to the games community and the studios interaction with them, too.
It's also like you would come eat our meal, and then we'd give you our phone number because we're like, 'Tell us if you liked it. Did you like it? We'll change it. You don't like tomatoes? We'll never do tomatoes again, and that's kind of what our mentality was at the beginning.
It was out of literal desperation because our studio was going to shut down if Warframe didn't keep the lights on, and we were willing to just bring the energy that we truly believe in this game, and that's not to say that the games that unfortunately don't make it don't.
It's just time. We've been able to build that authenticity and that enthusiasm for 12 years. We have not stopped doing dev streams since 2013.
In a terrifying time for the games industry, punctuated by layoffs, whether your game is a success or not. Still, seeing hundreds of people gather to celebrate this free-to-play success story that felt like a one-in-a-million longshot for the studio is a great reminder of what the industry can offer at its best.
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