Alex Birlo on March 26, 2023
One of my most favorite games of all time is celebrating its first decade. I cannot believe that I have been playing this game for an entire decade! That is a moment worth noting.
Right now, Warframe is an enormous game with around 60 million registered players, as of the time I am writing.
Just from the available information, we know that in 2020 alone, despite it being a low year for the game, they generated around 74 million USD in revenues.
It is constantly in the top 5 free to play games on Steam, with 87% of all reviews being positive.
No doubt that in the past decade this game has risen to heights Digital Extremes could not have imagined, and so could not the naysayers that dismissed the potential of the game at its launch.
But neither developing nor running Warframe was ever easy.
The game went through numerous iterations, updates and reworks. It is constantly evolving and is run on a very unique synergy, between its loving community and the developers who never shy away from trying to add something so new to the game, that it fundamentally widens the core game loop.
It is a phenomenon so rare in the industry, especially back then. I even dedicated part of my Bachelor’s dissertation to mentioning the game as a good example of “games as a service” project done right. At a time when everyone were just trying to figure out how it should work.
Even before its official release in 2013, the developer had it rough.
Digital Extremes were trying to begin work on a new project, something they would like to do. They had a vague Sci-Fi stealth action concept in mind. And they would go from one investor to another, pitching them the idea, using a demo, made up of mostly reused asset from a different game they made in 2008, called “Dark Sector”.
Which I, coincidentally, actually played as a kid, on my neighbor’s PC when I would come to hang out.
Not much luck there, because most investors would still be interested only in a specific kind of game, and would ask if DE could remake their concept, to fit that type of game.
Ultimately, those were the players that funded the game. The developers were astounded and still keep the community at the core of their company, because it is the community that was willing to believe in the idea of Warframe and pay money for its development after trying the beta.
Nowadays, this united unit of the company and the fans, has grown so large and interconnected, that Warframe has its own yearly conventions, contests, merch store and regular developer streams.
Digital Extremes had too little time to come up with at least some kind of basis for a game. And the idea of procedural generation of levels was a very good one.
Originally there were only a handful of “Warframes” that represented different gameplay styles, with different abilities.
This would be a cooperative PvE game, where up to 4 players could team up and tackle a handful of mission types, in procedurally generated spaceships.
Every time you go into the same area, the rooms, enemies and objectives placements would be altered. And so, one level would become much more replayable as you grind for resources, craft new weapons and make your frame stronger.
From there, it became the core of the game. It was no longer some sort of fixed online space game, it was an endless co-op, PvE, free to play, looter-shooter.
But what I keep repeating and what I place on a pedestal, as DE’s best quality, is that as the studio keeps developing Warframe, they are not afraid to mix things up.
When updating the game, they do not only improve what already works – like their core game play loop – but they also work hard to deliver things that expand the list of genres to which Warframe can be attributed.
From procedural corridors in spaceships, they moved to a new faction. Then they added levels that see you infiltrating areas on the surface of planets.
Biomes were added. Now you have a game with over 200 mission nodes, with some 21 mission types, spread across 25 planets. These areas vary from underwater cloning facilities, to mutant infested spaceships. From the deserts of Mars to the acid rain junkyards of Ceres.
And everything has updated tile-sets, that mix and match to alter each run.
As if that does not sound more than most AAA games present in terms of content, the developers also experimented with totally new ways to play the base game.
They added proper story and lore into the game. They added the ability to jump out of your Warframe.
Some planets now have open-world areas, where you can explore, fish, hunt, mine resources and complete randomized bounties.
Clans can come together and build their own space stations. Where they arrange the rooms, colors and decorations. Deciding where each floor and elevator will be placed, etc.
These stations are also complete with gameplay related facilities, that provide exclusive access to new gear.
The players can breed pets based on genetic codes. Craft space wings to fly in open space mission. Or even construct a massive combat ship, where the 4 players man various stations, fix hull damage, take out fires and repel enemy boarding crews, while maneuvering in space and completing the objective.
And all of this is free. Microtransactions revolve around a massive customization system and a bunch of time-savers, that while are increasing the speed at which you farm resources, never feel like a necessity.
This balancing was obviously never perfect, but now it is very much a result of player feedback and the developers adjusting percentages, to be fair to those players who are willing to spend the time to earn everything themselves.
If this amount of gameplay variety, content and pro-consumer behavior is not impressive – then I do not know what is.
Warframe is a unique game. Unique in that time and time again, the developers innovated, and the fans supported.
In the nearly 2 decades I have been playing video games, I have not encountered such a phenomenon as Warframe.
It is part of my graduation dissertation. It has got me through some of the roughest and loneliest years of my growing up. And it keeps always being on my radar, even as I now travel and am occupied with a lot of other projects – Warframe is always installed, and is always updated!
