Digital Extremes Eclipses Past Updates with Deep Space Combat Demo at TennoCon 2019
To a crowd of more than 2,000 attendees and millions more watching at home, the Digital Extremes development team put on a show of epic proportions at its annual Warframe conference Saturday night in London, Ontario. The team delivered a 25-minute live demo of its space-combat expansion Empyrean (AKA Project: Railjack), surprised players with a guest appearance from Director Dan Trachtenberg, revealed two immediately playable updates, and delivered a slew of new trailers, and more. The theme of the night couldn’t have been clearer — Warframe is expanding in new, innovative ways and if you’re not playing Warframe now, you should be.
The Empyrean expansion is Warframe’s next evolutionary gameplay step. Empyrean offers players the ability to take control of their own battleship (called a ‘Railjack’) and wreak havoc across the Origin System. You’ll travel in your new customizable battleship through space, hijack enemy ships and pilot them amidst asteroid-filled space battlefields, and confront revenge-crazed kingpins in newly designed boss battles. You will have the opportunity to use the Squad Link, the new groundbreaking multiplayer system that connects the world of Warframe like never before. With it, you’ll call in Tenno playing in other worlds to assist you for rewards and a greater sense of good against a growing common threat. It’s epic!
While the Empyrean demo was the biggest stage attraction, the devs were just as excited to unveil a new introduction to Warframe, created together with Director Dan Trachtenberg (“10 Cloverfield Lane,” “Black Mirror: Playtest,” “The Boys”). The nearly six-minute intro flashes back to a time in the past players have never seen before — when the old Orokin era came to a fall.
For the first time in Warframe, players will see original Warframes in action fighting against Dax Warriors, witness proto-Grineer soldiers, and more, all with a focus on delivering a deeper, more profound universe to both news and veteran players. Tenno (players’ name in-game) should expect to see this new intro incorporated into Warframe later this year or early next year.
We made two Warframe announcements revolving around immediately playable content on all platforms — including Xbox One! We launched Nightwave Series 2 and Wukong Prime Access this evening for players to jump in and play right now! Nightwave is Warframe’s free, regularly story-driven update delivered from your ship’s scanner in a space-radio broadcast. It’s built on story-driven gameplay rich with exclusive rewards, gear, and cosmetics.
In Series 2: The Emissary players will meet a strange mute child (Arlo) who emerges unharmed from the Infestation and brings with him the miraculous ability to heal the sick. As players dig deeper into the ranked tiers and story, a frightening prospect emerges that the Tenno must confront.
Wukong Prime was also announced from the stage. Available through earned gameplay or purchase as of TennoCon, the unruly trickster entered the Warframe roster as an homage to Chinese folklore. Now, with the benefit of a rework, the Monkey King gives eager Tenno an enhanced version of the original for the first time ever.
The curtain lifted on a handful of updates DE has hinted at over the last year. The New War, the fourth entry in Warframe’s cinematic series, followed up on TennoCon 2018’s tease of a full-fledged space assault on Earth. And the new Duviri Paradox trailer displays a mind-bending new look and open-world design that will have art majors talking for weeks.
We also unveiled new details on the 41st and 42nd Warframes (Grendel and Gauss were shown in more detail at the “From Concept to Creation: The Art of Warframe” panel) and our new Harrow Deluxe Warframe was revealed in the “Deep Dive: The Art of Railjack and Harrow” panel.
We would love to hear what you think of the new announcements, trailers, and news! Hit us up on the Warframe forums forums.warframe.com/ or on Twitter twitter.com/playwarframe.
Warframe is available now as a free to play title on Xbox One and can be downloaded from the Microsoft Store. Additional purchase details here.