Warframe dev announces same-universe fantasy action-MMORPG Soulframe

Digital Extremes – the developer behind popular free-to-play sci-fi shooter Warframe, has announced Soulframe, a new fantasy themed action-MMORPG set in the Warframe universe.

Soulframe will be Digital Extremes’ first new game in over five years, following on from 2017’s short-lived team-based FPS The Amazing Eternals, but details remain slight at this juncture.

Like its predecessor, Soulframe will adopt a free-to-play model when it eventually arrives at some unspecified future point, and Digital Extremes has shared a few additional details in an interview with The Washington Post. Here, it explains Soulframe will be built around “slow and heavy” melee combat, have a focus on exploration, and will feature a hub world similar to Warframe’s open-world planets. That world is said to be “a little angry about what’s been done to it”, causing the ground to shift throughout the day – leading to some proceduralism within the (presumably explorable) cave networks and crevasses beneath its surface.

And if you’re curious to know how all that might look, Digital Extremes has also released an enigmatic five-minute cinematic trailer – featuring everything from massive wolves to shiny buttocks – as a means to set the scene for things to come.

In a press release accompanying Soulframe’s announcement, Digital Extremes’ Geoff Crookes, who’ll serve as creative director on the game, said, “With Soulframe’s worldbuilding and thematic elements, we are really looking to go back to our childhood favourites and pull inspiration from the elaborate fantasy worlds that we fell in love with growing up”.

“Our team is really interested in this idea of nature and humanity colliding,” Crookes continued, “and we’ll be exploring a lot of those themes through our own lens while playing with ideas of restoration and exploration.”

Crookes was previously creative director on Warfare, but with the formation of a new Soulframe team at Digital Extremes, Rebecca Ford – previously Warframe’s live operations and community director – will take over that role. In an open letter shared as part of the announcement, Ford wrote, “It is an honor, and an emotional one at that, to be a part of Warframe’s future in the creative director role. Even more of an honor is being able to do it with members of the team growing into roles that form Warframe’s new leadership. You know some of this team already, and there are many new faces behind the scenes. They are wonderful people who I deeply respect, and as we work through the transition I know you’ll feel the same.”