Though it’s still not fully clear whether Soulframe is set in the universe of Warframe itself, the visual inspiration behind the new project paints a clear picture. Soulframe is an environmentalist MMORPG that aims to deliver “slow and heavy” melee combat in an ever-changing world that seems to be reacting to some type of industrial development by shifting around on a daily basis.

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Digital Extremes trademarked Soulframe earlier this year, which caused a fair bit of confusion in Warframe’s own gaming community. Whereas the title implies a direct relation to Warframe, it doesn’t seem like this is necessarily what the developer is going for. While there’s certainly room for Soulframe to be its own thing, Digital Extremes’ lead director Steve Sinclair has said that it will be “the mirror universe of Warframe,” which could mean a fair number of things at this time.

Curiously, much of Soulframe’s newly established development team comes from Warframe itself. Sinclair was one of the previous creative directors of the game (now having been succeeded by the former community manager, Rebecca Ford), for one, and he will be joined by Geoff Crookes, who had a similar role on the project. The pair seem to be excited to move onto Digital Extremes’ major new endeavor, which they said would be inspired by Princess Mononoke and The NeverEnding Story, among others. At the same time, Warframe’s delayed Duviri Paradox update is back on track, and its development, too, will continue.

One of Warframe’s biggest critiques over the years has been that it’s an underwhelming MMO with a stellar campaign, and Digital Extremes may use Soulframe to deliver a project with a better balance between its disparate features and content islands. As a blank slate, Soulframe will allow DE to continue developing an evolving gameplay experience without being held back by Warframe’s own drawbacks.

Since Warframe is considered to be one of the finest live-service games on the market, it will be interesting to see if Digital Extremes can do something similar with Soulframe, too. Since the game’s just been officially announced, much of it is still a total unknown, and more information about it should be coming out over the coming months.

Soulframe is currently in active development.

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