Warframe players will be able to cross-play and cross-save later this year.

Developer Digital Extremes made the announcement during this weekend's TennoCon 2021, which also showed off the shooter running on mobile devices, too.

While a concrete release date has yet to be confirmed, it does mean the Warframe faithful will be able to team up with pals playing on other consoles such as Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One before the end of the calendar year.

Read more

Digital Extremes has confirmed this year's TennoCon - Warframe's annual focal point for game announcements and community activities - will be held on Saturday, 17th July.

As was the case last year, TennoCon 2021 will be a digital-only event in response to ongoing COVD-19 health restrictions, but Digital Extremes is still aiming to make a proper day of it with a whole range of events set to be held - and streamed - throughout the day.

Alongside the usual content reveals, the studio is promising in-game activities, developer panels, a community art show, a cosplay contest, and more. All this will entirely free to watch online, but, for those wanting to fling some money in Digital Extremes' direction, the developer is launching two premium TennoCon 2021 packs to coincide with today's announcement.

Read more

It's a busy day for Warframe; not only is developer Digital Extremes poised to release the free-to-play sci-fi shooter's latest update, Call of the Tempestarii, on all platforms today, 13th April, it'll be launching its long-awaited Xbox Series X/S update, bringing parity with the recently enhanced PS5 version, at the same time.

Call of the Tempestarii - which comes to consoles in tandem with the Corpus Proxima and the New Railjack update recently seen on PC - introduces a brand-new story quest tied to Warframe Sevagoth and a still relatively mysterious Void Storm mechanic. However, it also aims to build on the groundwork laid in Corpus Proxima and the New Railjack, turning that update's significantly streamlined, more accessible space combat into an experience better integrated with the game's more traditional on-foot action.

Digital Extremes initially introduced Railjacks - essentially pilotable ships for use in deep space combat missions - back in 2019, but as chief operating office Sheldon Carter explains, it became increasingly clear significant portions of players simply weren't engaging with the system. "What we had was the higher the Mastery Rank level you were, which is a way we measure the overall player progression, the more apt you were to have engaged and to be playing with that stuff. And the inverse relationship [was true], so we just felt like that wasn't the goal for the system... it wasn't supposed to be the end-game system, it was supposed to be a system that everybody could engage with."

Read more

Can you believe Warframe came out a whopping eight years ago, in 2013? It was a follow-up to Digital Extremes' Dark Sector, a third person shooter with a knife frisbee gimmick that got a lukewarm reception (though I myself liked it a bunch). Dark Sector was itself a reimagining of a prototype the team had built for a game set not in a fictitious Eastern European setting but in space, and watching it now, you'll be amazed by how much of the DNA of Warframe was established years before the game ever came out.

The Tenno are there, Warframe's space ninjas and guardians of the solar system, in their strange organic armour. And for years, Warframe wasn't a lot more than that to me. A decent enough action title with a lot of grinding, unlocking new "warframes" to fight in. In my mind it's always sat alongside Destiny. Interesting space settings tethered to a treadmill of rote action. But while I've spent the last year or so giving both of these games another go, amused by certain additions (Destiny's bow is a joy to wield and Warframe's Octavia kills enemies with custom music...how could I not) only one of them has managed to grab me.

So if you're interested in playing Warframe, turn back now. I mean it, massive spoilers ahead. If you're remotely interested in playing it already then you'll be served better by experiencing its story for yourself.

Read more

Digital Extremes' free-to-play sci-fi shooter Warframe has just released its new Corpus Proxima & The New Railjack update on PC, aiming to fix the game's "overly complicated" space combat.

Warframe initially introduced ship-to-ship combat as part of 2019's wildly ambitious Empyrean expansion. In a new post outlining today's update, Digital Extremes calls Empyrean a "daring leap into space [with] some missteps" that ultimately ended up being "overly complicated with an unnecessarily high barrier to entry."

The goal of Corpus Proxima & The New Railjack, then, is to remedy these issues, and simplify space combat for new and returning players.

Read more

The developer of Warframe has moved to reassure fans after it was bought by Tencent.

In 2014, Hong Kong video game company Leyou bought majority shares in Digital Extremes. Now, Tencent has bought Leyou, making the Chinese megacorp Digital Extremes' parent company.

"We will remain creatively independent, we expect no changes to Warframe or how our studio operates, and we will remain as dedicated ever to you, the community, who has been with us every step of the way since we launched Warframe," Digital Extremes said in a message to players published on its website.

Read more

Warframe is joining the Epic Games Store, and will get a pack of three classic weapons from Unreal Tournament to celebrate.

There's history to this crossover, of course. Warframe developer Digital Extremes once worked with Epic on the original Unreal Tournament, more than two decades ago.

Now, the hugely-popular Warframe will host UT's Flak Cannon, Rocket Launcher and Shock Rifle. These weapons will be free and exclusive to the Epic Games Store for a limited time, until 24th December.

Read more

If your hard drive is groaning under the weight of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, then at least Digital Extremes is helping lighten the load - as Warframe is getting some updates to reduce its file size.

Through three "mini-remaster" updates spread over the rest of 2020, Digital Extremes intends to free up at least 15GB of space. The first update rolls out next week on PC and frees up 6.6GB, but Digital Extremes said that most platforms will "see similar improvements".

The updates will change how Warframe's texture data is compressed, using technology called Oodle Texture to roughly halve the size of textures on disk with "negligible" visual differences. The first update will target Warframe's lightmaps, while the second will apply the technology to the rest of the textures in the game.

Read more

Warframe's ceaseless expansion continues apace, this time with the arrival of a new - and decidedly hellish - open-world area as part of the game's Heart of Deimos update, which launches today on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

Heart of Deimos' new quest line unfolds within the "grotesquely beautiful" Cambion Drift - Warframe's third open-world area, following on from the Plains of Eidolon and Orb Vallis - which can be accessed by first completing Mars Junction on the in-game Star Chart.

Once the path is open, players can take on the task of stemming the spreading Infestation that threatens to engulf the new open-world - a goal that requires them to work with Mother and her "loyal (if a little damaged)" servants Loid and Otak.

Read more

This year's TennoCon presentation was a little different to normal, having fully migrated online due to COVID-19, but there were still plenty of changes announced for the Warframe universe, including a big new open-world area, a Warframe ability transfer feature... and mechs.

Releasing on all platforms simultaneously, the Heart of Deimos expansion is set to land on August 25th, and will introduce players to a new open world centred around the Infested faction. On the second moon of Mars, players can discover more about the Infested faction's origins, "unveiling the lost Entrati family and the marvels of technology and horror it left behind". There's also flying fish and two giant wyrms, with the latter locked in an eternal battle for power (and with one wyrm causing a "surge" in Infested power to keep players on their toes). Underground, players will find an area created from a series of procedurally-generated networked tunnels and vertical spaces to explore.

The K-Drive hoverboards introduced in Fortuna are getting a re-skin on Deimos - literally - as they appear as insects called Velocipods which you can ride over the hellish landscape. You can take them into combat, too, as the Velocipods will allow you to shoot while riding them, creating a "whole new combat dynamic". Or, if you need something with a little more firepower, you can try a Necramech: a pilotable suit of armour that comes with its own abilities, and is particularly effective when it comes to dealing with waves of Infested. They also appear as enemies within the Heart of Deimos expansion, and look pretty terrifying.

Read more