Story Highlight
  • Warframe is set to receive two major updates soon.
  • Jade Shadows is due for launch next month, and Warframe 1999, a huge expansion, is scheduled for release in 2024.
  • Before these content updates, we spoke to Digital Extremes and discussed various elements of this live-service experience.

Warframe is perhaps the definitive live-service experience that serves as a template for all developers looking to break into this genre.

The game has been supported for many years, and the team at Digital Extremes is still coming up with new, exciting ideas all these years later. This universe is set to expand further through the Warframe 1999 expansion in 2024.

Ahead of this expansion’s launch, we spoke to Community Director Megan Everett and discussed the studio’s approach to the free-to-play model, the already announced Android version, and more in an email interview.

Megan Everett From Digital Extremes
Megan Everett From Digital Extremes
Warframe has had an incredible journey over the last 11 years. As a game with so much to offer already, how does the team continue to come up with exciting new additions?

Megan Everett: We aren’t afraid of shaking things up, and we trust our staff deeply. Both Steve Sinclair and Rebecca Ford have sat in the creative director chair, who are both bringing different but stellar ideas to the table for all of us to iterate on. Everyone on the team is empowered to say, “would it be cool if we did this?,” including me!

We also have a legacy now after so much time adding things to Warframe, giving us more opportunities to revisit aspects from the past with a fresh lens and expand on them. Which is exactly what spawned Jade Shadows! So the “idea well” is far from dry, as long as people are passionate about Warframe it never will be either.

What’s your secret to keeping microtransactions fair and ensuring they don’t get in the way of player enjoyment?

Megan Everett: It’s the most non-secret secret! Practically everything in the game is accessible for free. When it comes to live service games, players will invest two things: time and money. Warframe allows them to have full freedom when making the choice between what and how much to invest between those two things without missing out on anything from the core experience.

Digital Extremes attempted to appeal to new players with Duviri Paradox in 2023. Do you have similar additions planned for the future to help newcomers ease into the experience?

Megan Everett: We are always trying to experiment and find new ways to improve the new player experience. Aside from Duviri, we’ve made major changes to the first Quest, Awakening, easier resource acquisition and crafting for critical narrative path items like Railjacks and Voidrigs, and revamped Star Chart progression to be smoother, among other quality of life improvements.

It’s an ongoing conversation we are having among the team and also alongside the community, we want to make sure fresh changes made to new player experiences is something that all of us feel comfy with. We want to be polishing the early game content just as much as the late game content.

Tell us more about Jade Shadows

Megan Everett: Jade Shadows releases next month, focusing on one of Warframe’s most iconic characters, The Stalker. It’s a story the team has wanted to tell for a long time. Expect answers to some questions people have had about Stalker for years while also planting some seeds for new mysteries to think about across this next narrative arc.

It introduces a new Warframe, Jade, who is more of a support-type frame with a very angelic appearance. It’ll also introduce a new mission type, Ascension, which we will dive into more details on during our next Devstream on May 31st at 2 pm ET!

Since the game now has more than 50 Warframes, is there a specific number or goal that the team aims to hit, let’s say 5 years from now, or do you just keep creating new frames without an arbitrary goal?

Megan Everett: As long as Warframe exists and we still have ideas, we will keep making new Warframes. The cadence we are currently on is around 3-4 new Warframes each year alongside a new Prime Warframe every 4ish months.

All of these are usually tied to major updates or Quests that are full of new lore to discover through in-game quests, the Leverian museum, and mediums outside the game like blog entries on our official website, Prime trailers, and more. We have a large catalog of Warframe ideas that’s continually growing with ideas and concepts from numerous departments!

What new details can fans expect on Warframe 1999 at Tennocon 2024?

Megan Everett: We will have a new gameplay demo to share filled with juicy deets, but we can’t say much more beyond that other than tune in to TennoLive, our keynote, on July 20th!

What are you most excited about when it comes to Warframe 1999?

Megan Everett: For me personally, I love the aesthetic grunge of the 90s and how the team is adapting that in the Warframe universe. Taking something as simple as a motorcycle and thinking, “How can we make this feel like it belongs in the Warframe universe?” I think players are going to have a lot of fun just looking at all the small details of 1999!

With Digital Extremes splitting resources between Warframe and Soulframe now, does the team expect to release content at the same pace for the former in the future?

Megan Everett: So we are definitely not “splitting resources,” we have a dedicated Warframe team and a dedicated Soulframe team.

There is some overlap when it makes sense internally, but we’re slowly expanding to account for both projects. Content won’t slow down for Warframe at the pace it’s currently at, and Soulframe will release updates at its own pace.

The game landed on iOS very recently. An Android version is also in development, but no clear release date is available. Can you share how much progress you’ve made on this version? Any estimated release date?

Megan Everett: Progress is moving along great and on schedule thanks to our partners at Nitro Games. Still can’t say exactly when just yet but we’ll be sure to update everyone on our next steps!

On the subject of different versions, you’re still supporting last-gen consoles. Is there still a huge community on the PS4 and Xbox One versions?

Megan Everett: To us, last-gen and current-gen consoles are the same player base; they are our PlayStation and Xbox players.

We are, however, experimenting with increasing the enemy AI cap for next-gen consoles that can handle it in our Jade Shadows update. We’ll share more details on our next Devstream this month!

Would you like to share any final thoughts?

Megan Everett: Please tune into TennoCon this year! It will genuinely be our biggest one yet. We have so much to share for everyone in person and at home, so be prepared for some wild surprises. I genuinely don’t think what we’re cooking up is on anyone’s TennoCon bingo cards 😉

Aoi From Warframe 1999
Warframe 1999 Is Taking Players To The Past

All eyes are currently on Tennocon 2024. As said earlier, the event goes live on May 31st, and with more information expected on Warframe 1999, the event is sure to be exciting for all fans worldwide.

As we look forward to the new expansion, we would like to thank Digital Extremes and Community Director Megan Everett for conducting this interview ahead of Tennocon 2024.

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Avinash Jaisrani
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