Warframe has been on the market for quite a long while now, and it remains about as successful as it’s ever been, even years after its initial launch window. The developer, Digital Extremes, is intent on keeping the game up and running for times to come, but that’s not to say that it’s not exploring other game production avenues as well.
Namely, Digital Extremes has just trademarked a curious new intellectual property, “Soulframe.” There’s a clear, and likely deliberate, resemblance between the titles Soulframe and Warframe, which has led some to believe that the developer could be in the early stages of production of a fully fledged sequel to one of the longest-lasting live-service games on PC.
Though it’s one of the most popular old games on Steam, Warframe is continuously getting major new content updates and expansion packs for players to enjoy. Digital Extremes is bound to try and keep the game up and running for as long as possible, but the existence of the Soulframe trademark could very well suggest that the studio may try to explore other options over the next couple of years, especially since most of DE’s other non-Warframe projects, such as The Amazing Eternals, ended up getting canceled due to low player interest.
Since there’s virtually nothing currently known about Soulframe, it’s worth pointing out that it could also be a project that’s entirely unrelated to Warframe, as the word directly references the biomechanical constructs that players use in combat. To that end, it seems like a safe assumption that, if this were to be a sequel, it would retain the word “Warframe” in some way. Digital Extremes’ current version of the trademark simply states that it is, in fact, a video game with some type of online service elements.
Whether Soulframe relates to Warframe or not will be the big question that Digital Extremes is bound to clarify sooner or later. It’s highly unlikely that DE is about to stop supporting its most important product anytime soon, with major content updates, such as the delayed Warframe expansion Duviri Paradox, yet to come out.
The fact that Warframe is still popular and often featured on lists of the best live-service games on the market speaks volumes about Digital Extremes’ dedication to its flagship product. As the studio’s previous attempts at diversification have either outright failed or simply fizzled out – as in the case of Sword Coast Legends – it’s not strange to see DE attempting to establish a more varied portfolio of games.
Warframe is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
