Warframe crossplay and cross-save — two extremely requested features for the free-to-play cooperative shooter — seem to be right around the corner. At least to a certain number of players.
Originally teased all the way back in 2019, crossplay would allow users on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and eventually mobile to work together in-game. That’s quite a lot of different platforms! It’s also probably a lot of work to implement in a game that was released long before crossplay even seemed like a thing that could happen. Nevertheless, players have been wondering for three years when they can expect to jump between platforms and different groups of friends.
The news right now basically boils down to what you can see in the promotional shot above: “community testing coming soon.” Presumably that means a beta of some kind. Though it’s unclear how many people will have access or how. It’s also not entirely clear how “soon” we’re talking about here. Warframe developer Digital Extremes typically doesn’t announce a specific release date for updates until it’s very close to done (like a week in advance of release).
Whether or not you’re talking about Warframe, crossplay seems to be a tricky subject. Sony, the company behind the PlayStation brand, really hated the idea for a long time. Likely some executives there still do. Sony worked hard to block crossplay between its consoles and others for years (despite undeniable evidence that it was technologically very possible).
The publisher eventually relented, sort of, but instituted a policy that forces other game developers to basically pay a crossplay toll. If you implement crossplay, and want to include PlayStation in that equation, you need to share revenue with Sony. Despite this, the overwhelmingly popular feature is now seen in more and more new games. Warframe, which was a PlayStation 4 launch title, is just now finally joining the tide.
The other elephant in the room is progression. The key art for the announcement obviously only mentions crossplay — not cross-save. The latter is something I personally want to see a lot more than the former. I’d love to be able to play from my PlayStation 5 on the couch, rather than sitting in the office at my PC all day, but don’t want to lose my thousands of hours of progress built up over a decade. Not to mention the many skins and other cosmetics I’ve purchased there.
We don’t know as much about Warframe cross-save specifically at this point. Only that it’s coming sometime after crossplay hits first.
In the meantime, Digital Extremes is syncing up time-limited things in-game like Baro Ki’Teer (the special vendor) on July 29, 2022 and Nightmare Missions at some point later. This will pave the way for crossplay which will then pave the way for cross-save.
Disclaimer: Digital Extremes’s parent company was purchased by Tencent in 2020. Tencent is also Fanbyte Media’s parent company. Though the corporation doesn’t have any direct contact with, or provide directives to, Fanbyte editorial. I just write these disclaimers anyway for ethical reasons. I don’t know if anybody even reads them. Hello? Welcome to the bottom of the article.
