It looks like Warframe is more than prepared for the next generation of Xbox and PlayStation, showing off radical graphical changes in a new next-gen trailer. The free to play looter shooter by Digital Extremes has come a long way before its early days on PC. Warframe made a big splash as a PlayStation 4 launch title and has added tens of characters and multiple new ways to play since then. It's one of those games that keeps growing and growing as the years go on, so it's more than worth it to release a sequel-worthy graphical upgrade on the eve of the next generation of consoles.
The free-to-play game was seen as something of a novelty even at the PlayStation 4 launch, but Warframe is one of several games that has turned it into an extremely valid option for games looking to keep expanding with as wide a player base as possible. The most obvious example of this is Fortnite, one of the most popular games in the world and the game that brought battle royale to the same level as Minecraft. Other games like Call of Duty: Warzone and Apex Legends took up the torch and gained their own fanbases, and all of them will move onto the next-gen systems at one point or another.
In a blog post on the official PlayStation Blog, Digital Extremes lead producer Dave Kudirka went into detail on how Warframe specifically would evolve on the next generation of consoles. There will be cross-save and cross-play right out of the box, letting players move onto the new console seamlessly and let them play with those who haven't made the jump yet. The game will now also support dynamic lighting out of the box, and Dave talks about how these next-gen updates are a baseline that will be improved upon over time.
In addition to the work the team has done, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X naturally allows a few enhancements that also improve the experience for everyone. The game now runs in 4K at 60FPS, an experience that was typically PC-only in previous generations. The loading times have also been decreased significantly, as seen in the next-gen trailer. The PlayStation 5 player loads in thirty seconds sooner than a player on PlayStation 4. It may not seem like much, but those seconds add up to a whole lot more gaming over the course of days of missions and boss encounters.
Although the focus is on the PlayStation 5 in this post, all the next-gen upgrades for Warframe are coming to both console platforms. In fact, players who have the game installed on a PC with sturdy enough hardware can sample the upgrades right now in-game. Like many games getting specific upgrades for next-gen, Digital Extremes' long-running phenomenon looks like a whole new beast in this gameplay footage and adding in the higher framerates and the comfort of the living room will only serve to improve the experience in just a week's time. The future is here, and it's very pretty.
Source: PlayStation Blog