On March 25, 2013, Digital Extremes launched a free-to-play sci-fi motion title known as Warframe, placing gamers within the roles of the Tenno, preventing towards interstellar evils throughout the galaxy. What began with humble beginnings has now grown into probably the most profitable live-service video games available on the market, and after celebrating Warframe’s thirteenth birthday, and with its new sibling, Soulframe, Digital Extremes needs to show it nonetheless has loads to supply its followers.
GameSpot sat down with Warframe group director Megan Everett at PAX East 2026, simply after she accomplished a Warframe- and Soulframe-focused panel on the primary stage. We spoke in regards to the new Shadowgrapher replace, Warframe’s bounce to Nintendo Change 2, the studio’s stance on generative AI, and extra.
Enter the Shadowgrapher
The most recent Warframe replace provides a brand new playable character to the combination in Follie, an imposing determine who makes use of inks and paints as weapons in battle. The limited-time sport mode launched along with her, Follie’s Hunt, forces gamers right into a 4v1 showdown with Follie that invokes comparable emotions to horror title Lifeless by Daylight or different comparable uneven multiplayer video games.
Whereas planning Follie’s Hunt, Everett mentioned the staff knew that whereas they wished to create one thing within the vein of DBD, which has 4 survivor gamers going through off towards one highly effective killer participant, Warframe’s model would have some key variations.
“We did not need to do a 4v1 with a killer as a result of, after 13 years, gamers are so sturdy,” Everett mentioned. “They’ve their builds and a longtime meta, so how can we make this just a little totally different?”
The reply, it turned out, was to make Follie invincible, a continuing menace monitoring the staff via the sector.
“We wished to do this form of scary angle, so we thought, what’s extra scary than an invulnerable girl chasing after you?” Everett continued. “It was a journey to get there, although, as a result of we had a imaginative and prescient for it after which it form of grew to become one thing else.”
“[Creative director] Rebb Ford had an inspiration from Mario 64 of leaping into certainly one of Follie’s work to start the mode,” Everett added. “So we checked out what we already had current within the sport, looking for one thing that we may give new life to. Ultimately, we realized there’s been a relay floating across the star chart, wanting actually unhappy for 10 years, so we determined to make the most of that.”
Digital Extremes staff realized that the proper area for Follie’s Hunt had been actually staring gamers within the face for over a decade. The Vesper Relay, a hub world that was destroyed throughout an in-game occasion and left on the map to remind gamers of the loss, was chosen to host the brand new mode.
A brand new platform
Earlier than PAX East even started, Digital Extremes had launched a bevy of updates for Warframe throughout a number of platforms–including a brand new one, because it formally launched on Change 2 on March 25. The whole lot Warframe has ever seen in its 13 years of existence can now be performed on Nintendo’s newest handheld, due to a easy transition between the earlier and present consoles.
“We began engaged on [the Switch 2 version] final yr. We clearly needed to look forward to the dev kits to return, however I believe as a result of Warframe already exists on the unique Change, it was only a ‘plop a construct onto Change 2, see what the {hardware} can do’ state of affairs,” Everett mentioned. “As soon as we bought the dev kits, we have been rocking and rolling. The structure was comparable sufficient that we simply needed to mess with the code.”
Even with developer kits in hand, nevertheless, the Change 2 model of Warframe did not launch when the staff first hoped it could, she mentioned. There have been hopes among the many staff to drop the Change 2 model similtaneously Warframe’s newest main replace, The Previous Peace, on the finish of 2025.
“We wished to place it on the finish of final yr; we have been like, how cool would it not be when The Previous Peace launches to say ‘it is also out on Change 2, Merry Christmas, see you subsequent yr,'” Everett defined. “However with the bandwidth of the staff, we needed to step again and understand that The Previous Peace was loopy sufficient to develop. So we pushed it to this yr and [launched] it with the Shadowgrapher replace.”
As for updates to the Change 2 model, exterior of the anticipated visible and frame-rate enchancment, the addition that has made probably the most affect is the Pleasure-Con’s mouse characteristic. Everett mentioned the staff obtained a ton of suggestions on the sensitivity of the mouse simply days after the Change 2 launch, and that the staff was “already making modifications” primarily based on that suggestions.
Soul of a brand new sport
Alongside Warframe’s continued 13-year march, a brand new venture in a brand new style is beginning to discover its footing. Soulframe, which exchanges the sci-fi aesthetic of Warframe with a medieval fantasy motif, has been slowly constructing its approach to a full 1.0 launch, with new updates together with wolf mounts and new characters introduced throughout the PAX East panel.
With a brand new venture comes a brand new mountain of labor to finish, and the builders inside Digital Extremes are persevering with to seek out concord in how they work on two sturdy video games at one time, Everett mentioned. The groups are cut up, however concepts are nonetheless shared between them.
“It was undoubtedly a battle at first,” Everett mentioned, “We did the cut up, the Soulframe staff began doing Soulframe issues, and the Warframe staff put out [the] Duviri[‘s Paradox update]. Then, as soon as the 1999 stuff rolled round, the Warframe staff wanted further assist, so a few of the Soulframe staff needed to come again. It took a minute to seek out the circulation of all of it, however now we have a very good circulation now, and now we have many individuals who can work on each video games.”
The mixed efforts additionally permit the groups to share tech between them, ought to any huge or game-changing enhancements to the bottom know-how of the video games floor, she mentioned.
“If Soulframe’s staff immediately develops this loopy tech enchancment for a way eyes look or one thing like that, Warframe’s going to get it too, and we are able to all work collectively on what that appears like,” Everett mentioned. “The Warframe staff needs the Soulframe staff to achieve success, we need to see them succeed, we’re all on this collectively. So no matter one wants from the opposite, or vice versa, we’re all shared.”
Neighborhood effort
Loads of that success, in fact, comes due to the sturdy Warframe group, which stuffed the primary theater at PAX East for the panel and represented the sport all all through the weekend. The significance of that group, and what they permit Digital Extremes to proceed to do, shouldn’t be misplaced on anybody contained in the studio.
“They hold our lights on; with out them, all of this might finish tomorrow,” Everett mentioned. “[Warframe is] a free-to-play sport. Nobody has to spend something if they do not need to. They’re selecting to assist us via the cosmetics and Prime Entry bundles and stuff like that, and we’re so grateful that they do, and we allow them to know.”
A brand new problem for Digital Extremes has been getting these tenured Warframe supporters over to Soulframe to attempt one thing new. Whereas some gamers ventured over to the brand new sport merely to assist the company–“being a supportive fan of the folks and the corporate that make the sport and eager to see them reach one other sport,” as Everett describes–the staff is aware of that not everybody shall be as drawn to Soulframe as they’re to Warframe now.
“The entire level of Soulframe was to make a sport that felt totally different from Warframe,” Everett mentioned. “So, there’s going to be folks that say, ‘Warframe’s my pace, Soulframe’s stunning and funky and all, but it surely’s simply not my vibe,’ and that is fully honest.”
The staff did discover that some Warframe gamers who weren’t round 13 years in the past jumped over to Soulframe just because they did not need to miss out on early cosmetics once more. That might recommend that, like Warframe, gamers expect Soulframe to be round a very long time.
“When Soulframe launched the Founders program, there have been so many individuals that missed out on Warframe Founder that weren’t going to overlook Soulframe Founder,” Everett mentioned. “Tthey knew Soulframe was going to do one thing just like what Warframe did and supply a one-time beauty, they usually thought ‘I’ve the most important remorse ever of not getting that Excalibur Prime, I am getting Soulframe.'”
Human made
The Warframe group, as supportive as it’s, may dish out some robust love when obligatory. A notable instance got here in a current growth stream, when a bit of fan artwork created with generative AI was highlighted by Everett.
“We stream each Thursday, and we all the time exhibit fan artwork and stuff from the group,” Everett mentioned. “One time, somebody made artwork of what appeared like a Warframe Gundam, and I believed it was so cool, so I confirmed it. Instantly, everybody watching the stream clocked it, and I used to be devastated. It was so rattling sneaky.”
Digital Extremes’s stance on generative AI is straightforward: Nothing the staff needs to place out will ever be made by AI.
“We’re a really non-AI firm and it’s all people making Warframe and Soulframe,” Everett mentioned.
So, when this piece of fan artwork got here via, Everett mentioned she felt like she’d let the followers down, to the purpose the place she now has to fret when in search of different artwork to characteristic on stream.
“I actually do not even need to open any kind of timeline and have a look at artwork as a result of I am like, ‘Am I being fooled?’ I actually do not know if what I am taking a look at is actual, and I get so annoyed about it, it is so annoying,” Everett mentioned. “I am very keen about not having any of that shit. Nothing in our video games shall be AI-generated. Ever.”