New Warframe 1999 update gets release date as Soulframe remains a 2025 spectre
Digital Extremes, developer of Warframe and Soulframe, has earned a bit of a reputation for delivering stellar games and large content updates behind schedule. With the launch of Warframe 1999, though, the studio played it closer to the chest, only announcing a solid launch date for the upcoming Cyberpunk-esque expansion. The same cannot be said for Soulframe, however.
According to the latest Warframe Devstream (watch below or read the highlights or overview), Warframe 1999 will launch in December 2024 and introduce a slew of new content to the live-service PvE looter. So far, Digital Extremes has confirmed that Warframe 1999 will launch with the following new content:
- New World: Höllvania
- New Syndicate: The Hex
- New Traversal Vehicle: Atomicycle
- New Factions: Techrot & Scaldra
- New Mission Type: Endless Capture
- New Warframe: Cyte-09
- 6 Protoframe Skins (and Gemini Emotes)
- New Adversaries: Technocyte Coda
- New 1999-themed Cosmetics
The new world, Höllvania, will follow the traditional tile-based procedural-generation model of most of the rest of Warframe, which is a bit of a departure from recent updates, which have mostly expanded on the open-world exploration and survival gameplay mechanics. Despite this, the new tileset will have various seasons, with each providing a different experience. This alludes to there perhaps being different enemy types, boons, effects, or even loot drops during the different seasons, although Digital Extremes is deliberately being tight-lipped about the new tileset.
Soulframe gets a pre-alpha launch window
Much like Warframe 1999, Soulframe has been in the works for a long time, although Digital Extremes has been pretty up-front about the full release still being a long way off. While there is a closed, live version of Soulframe already in testing with a very limited number of players, Digital Extremes confirmed in a Soulframe Devstream (watch below) that the fantasy RPG would likely only launch in pre-alpha sometime in 2025.
Given that Digital Extremes was planning to launch Soulframe in 2024, the assumption is that the game will launch in the first half of the year, although the dev team hasn't promised a specific release window just yet. Currently, the game is in what Digital Extremes calls a "pre-pre-alpha."
While Soulframe is a very different game compared to Warframe, leaning much more on fantasy than sci-fi elements, the dev team explained during the stream that they would be using what they've learned from Warframe in the development of Soulframe. For starters, Digital Extremes will use Warframe's Focus Schools system as a sort of foundation for the Fighting Arts progression system in Soulframe. Looking at the in-game visuals, particularly the particle and lighting system, and the character design and movement system, the Warframe touch is also evident.
Warframe is known to run surprisingly well on gaming handhelds, like the Lenovo Legion Go (curr. $499.99 at Lenovo US).
