As we put the finishing touches on Warframe to launch on PlayStation 5 this Thursday, I couldn’t help but think about the journey that got us here. The Warframe experience has always been our relationship with you, the Tenno.
Your love for ball jumping, which comes from a gamer favorite bug called coptering. Your endless desire to play the part of Umbra, a simple skin that you inspired us to turn into one of the best cinematic stories in the game. Your artistic passion for customization that brought player-created artwork to Warframe under the name of TennoGen. Your dedication has made it possible for us to work late into the night to make Warframe amazing for you.
This is why stepping into the PlayStation 5 era is so important. For us, that means bringing almost eight years of future-proof content to PS5. This means new players experience Warframe for free with a brand new graphics engine, up to 60 fps and 4K right from the start. This means that PS4 gamers are seamlessly transitioning to a whole new generation. And that means all the friends you’ve made stick together, with PS4 and PS5 gamers playing together in intergenerational gaming – a first for Warframe.
Plains of Eidolon, one of Warframe’s three open worlds, in its next-gen glory!
In 2013, we were the punk rockers of gaming
At first we were just a small, disjointed team with a Space Ninja game that had drawn a small but enthusiastic audience. We had just launched on PC, but the next generation of consoles at the time – PS4 – was just around the corner.
I can’t speak for others, but for me showing Warframe for the first time at E3 was raw excitement. Sony gave us space on their booth. They played our trailer on a huge two story screen. Our little punk rock show was on the biggest stage possible for the games. I remember stepping on the show, seeing our trailer, and getting chills. Even Kojima-san looked at him!
We’ve come a long way since our original E3 PS4 launch trailer.
In the first two weeks of launch in November, we had over 300,000 new players. We were over a million by the end of January. Today, almost seven years to the day, we’re at over 60 million and we’re launching the next generation again. It’s still as tough now as it was then, but we’re more than ever excited to be working for you.
Wake up Tenno, wake up
Warframe always started with you, a lone Tenno, awakened from a generation’s slumber. The world and its past, a mystery to be discovered. At first, our history was relegated to the simple things – descriptions of objects or the environment. But we have always had much bigger ambitions.
In 2015, you all got to wake up to our first cinematic quest, The Second Dream. Our entire studio was nervously glued to the screen as we watched your reactions to this twisty story with glee. Back then, I felt like we were taking a huge risk, but now it’s one of the most defining moments of my career. And our community’s protection of the secrets of the quest, a hallmark of long-standing pride.
All of these updates – The Second Dream, The War Within, and The Sacrifice – quickly became fan favorites. And finally, on PS5, we will bring you the next chapter of the story, The New War. A story that has been brewing for nearly a decade.
Just the trailer, we have to keep the secrets inside.
When Warframe opened
In the summer of 2017, we once again surprised players with the reveal of our first open world, the Plains of Eidolon. Seeing your cheers and excitement live as the doors of Cetus opened brought back the same thrills of our E3 PS4 revealed four years ago. Only now we were at our own fan convention, TennoCon! And for some reason, thousands of you had come to see us on our own stage. I bet none of you expected to fish.
Fast forward to our launch on PS5 and Warframe now has three open worlds that have never looked better or loaded faster. Our enhanced renderer really shines here, bringing dynamic lighting that makes every world more immersive than ever. And now that we’re creating content early on to take advantage of this technology, we can’t wait for you to experience our next open world, The Duviri paradox, on PlayStation 5.
No real fish were harmed in the making of this trailer.
Our 44th Warframe
When we launch on PS5, you’ll have 44 Warframes to master, each available for free with their own distinct abilities and playstyles. But I’m especially proud of Xaku, our 44th and newest Warframe released this fall, because it’s also the second built from the ground up by our community!
When we started with four Warframes, we never knew how we would get to 20, let alone 44! There’s even Octavia – a Warframe whose abilities are built around an in-game music sequencer that you can create or share with the community. But with your inspiration, we made it!
Xaku killing in superb undead style on Deimos.
PS5 and beyond
As I look to the future, so many things cross my mind.
I can’t wait to hear what gamers think once they play Warframe for the first time on PS5. Eliminate hordes of enemies with smooth framerate and jump into every mission in the blink of an eye. Discover our history and our worlds with our new improved renderer that will knock them out and adaptive triggers that make combat even more immersive. I can’t wait to play with you all!
Available Thursday, November 26 on PlayStation 5.
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