13 Years of Warframe: How This Strange Online-RPG Thrives in the Chaotic Live-Service Landscape

In the fast-paced, crowded landscape of live-service games, Digital Extremes' Warframe has been a recurring favorite among die-hard fans of online action-RPGs — and the community is still growing 13 years since its launch. With the volatility of the live-service games space in recent years, the creators of Warframe have managed to find their space and keep it growing, and the developers have plenty of thoughts on how their tenacious free-to-play online RPG is keeping things fresh, and has still got players clamoring for what's next. Just before Digital Extremes' live showcase set for PAX East 2026, we sat down with creative director Rebecca Ford to talk about Warframe in 2026, how the evolving online action-RPG is continuing its growth, along with the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 release and the Shadowgrapher update. Furthermore, Ford shared her thoughts on the current state of live-service games and why audiences have "sportified" discussions about games in our present time (check out our interview with Ford in full right here). "It's our 13th anniversary since we launched on Steam in 2013, which was indicative of when things took off for us," Ford said. "It's been great, we've done