With the news that Warframe is going open world, shifting from the procedurally-generated space station raids it’s known for to a hand-crafted open-world region, developers Digital Extremes have placed their game firmly alongside BioWare’s Anthem – the open-world sci-fi shooter announced at E3.
We spoke to Digital Extremes about Warframe’s first open-world zone, and what to expect next.
The similarity to Anthem is not lost on Warframe’s live ops and community producer, Rebecca Ford, but it’s also not the same time a game has had a marked similarity to Digital Extremes’ shooter.
“When we saw Anthem go live, we had the same reaction as when we saw Destiny get announced a couple of years before,” Ford says. “This is the second time we’ve had ‘twin syndrome’, where we’re like ‘Oh no, it’s another sci-fi co-op game’. At the time of Destiny, we were scared, and you’re always scared when there’s a presumed competitor.”
Ford isn’t too worried, though. “I haven’t dug around with [Anthem] to see how close it is to Warframe, but when I saw it, it looked different enough that I think it’s going to help our user base realise that sci-fi is ‘in’ and you should play as much of it as you want. Once you go sci-fi, you want it all.
“If you like Anthem, you’ll find out about Warframe, and if you like Warframe, you’ll like Anthem. Those sorts of things tend to help each other out, despite the fact that they’re competitors. It’s always been very positive for the community, in my experience. They get to become immersed in a world they love, whether it’s ours or someone else’s. They’re happy, so it’s good for me.”