When is the Soulframe release date? The upcoming fantasy MMORPG from the creators behind Warframe has been on our minds since it was first announced in 2022. More recently, developer Digital Extremes has revealed story details and gameplay trailers that give us an idea of what to expect from Soulframe’s beautiful open world that establishes its themes of climate change and environmental destruction.
Soulframe certainly looks and feels very different from its sci-fi sister, Warframe, instead taking cues from our favorite fantasy games. However, there are plenty of parallels to delight long-time Warframe fans and new players alike once the MMORPG arrives. Until then, here’s everything we know so far, including all the latest news surrounding the Soulframe release date and the upcoming Preludes playtests.
Soulframe release date window
The Soulframe release date looks now to be sometime in 2025, as developers state that opening up the game to new players is more of a “2025 endeavor.”
Digital Extremes CEO Steve Sinclair explains “We’re not going to open it up for a little bit, and the reason is it’s just not quite ready for that in terms of the long-term progression stuff we have to get to.”
For those who aren’t invited to participate in the closed alpha, Digital Extremes are committed to keeping prospective players in the loop with regular gameplay clips, dev interviews, and other reveals, as confirmed in our exclusive Soulframe interview.
Soulframe Preludes playtest
Soulframe Preludes is the invite-only closed alpha test taking place right now. Preludes is set to open to the public in Fall 2024.
Sign-ups for closed playtests are live on the official Soulframe site now. “We’re hoping to open this up to a lot more players this fall,” Crookes stated in a Soulframe devstream. “The feedback is important to us, and we really do iterate on it regularly.”
We recommend signing up early to claim your username ahead of release. You’ll also be able to claim the Alca’s Eye item after launch, regardless of whether you gain access to the alpha playtest.
Soulframe trailers
The Soulframe reveal trailer was the main highlight of Tennocon 2022, showing off Digital Extremes’ next major project. As a purely cinematic trailer, no actual gameplay footage was shown. However, it does give some insight into how the game will differentiate itself from the developer’s previous games, including Warframe.
More trailers have since been revealed, including the Preludes gameplay video below, the first real glimpse of gameplay we’ve seen so far.
Soulframe gameplay
Soulframe is a stark contrast to the action we’ve come to know and love in Warframe. Instead of going for fast-paced combat, the team wanted to really slow things down and force you to think about every action. There’s a lot of dodging and parrying but also a whole slew of different combat mechanics, too.
In the Tennocon 2023 demo, we see our character throw their sword at an enemy, only for it to come zooming back like a boomerang. There are also three different skill trees (Courage, Grace, Spirit) that allow you to become more tanky, more agile, or use nature-based magic. Some spells appear to turn enemies to stone, as well as the usual fireballs and ground-shattering earthquakes.
You can also use the environment to your advantage, with the ability to kick enemies off of high structures and into chasms. And, if that doesn’t do it for you, you can also summon a huge wolf that tears your enemies asunder. You can also ride the wolf, by the way, so there’s that.
In our Tennocon 2023 interview with Soulframe’s chief creative officer, Steve Sinclair, we also got to enquire into some of Soulframe’s influences, including landmark soulslike games like Elden Ring. “There are a lot of other influences there,” Sinclair said. “Great melee combat games like Ghost of Tsushima are huge ones as well.”
Geoff Crookes has also given The Post some insight into where you might be traveling outside of the hub area, “the world itself is a little angry about what’s been done to it, and the grounds underneath tend to shift throughout the day”. In terms of gameplay, this means that dungeons are, indeed, procedural.
As you venture through these instances you’ll encounter Wandering Souls, which are spirits whose virtues you can equip as effectively a fourth spell slot. These can help you navigate through dungeons by opening new doors and pathways or provide combat benefits like burning weapons.
One of our favorite features, though, is that you interact with the world by playing music on what appears to be a panpipe. Playing certain notes will provide you with the opportunity to view echoes of times gone by, giving you insight into the world’s past.
With Tennocon 2024 now done and dusted, even more information has been released, and we were among some of the lucky few to our hands on the game. We’ve seen footage of Nimrod, a new recurring enemy capable of wielding thunder and lightning in combat. Then there’s Verminia the Rat Witch who gives a unique new hook to character customization.
Soulframe setting and story
Soulframe follows a rogue Ode, or sky person. We’re unsure why our character has decided to abandon the Ode, but the group appears to be corrupting the world around it. We meet the mysterious Lady Deora, a figure who appears to have been corrupted by the Ode and turned against nature. How we know her is unclear, and what happens to her once she has been ‘purified’ also remains a mystery.
What we do know is that our character appears to have been sent by a mysterious ‘Empress,’ to whom the once-corrupted stag, Garren, bows. You are described as an ‘envoy,’ but your purpose in the world remains unclear.
Either way, it’s clear that the game is, to borrow Digital Extreme’s words, “heavily influenced by themes of nature, restoration, and exploration.” Unlike Warframe’s futuristic locations and characters, the world of Soulframe trends more towards fantasy and magic but isn’t particularly grimdark in nature. There are still hints that Soulframe won’t completely stray from sci-fi, though, with character designs still retaining some futuristic elements, like the player’s bionic arm and a huge spaceship-style structure that’s seen in the latter half of the Tennocon 2023 demo.
That theme of nature is evident from the trailer, too, as the player both helps animals and teams up with them in battle, as we see during the loading screens and the small bird familiars that can guide you through the dungeons. In an interview with the Washington Post, the Soulframe team names Princess Mononoke and The NeverEnding Story as inspirations for the game. With a heavy focus on environmentalism in the former, then, perhaps the story could tackle the subject of habitat destruction, among other themes.
On the official Soulframe X (formerly Twitter) feed, more of this theme of nature and wildlife can be seen in a series of more recent images featuring the likes of Garren, the magnificent elk mentioned earlier, that we see make an appearance after the boss fight. Enemies have also been diversified to include more animals, as mean and monstrous battle hounds are among your foes.
As for its links to Warframe, in a “Warframe / Soulframe Transition Stream”, the team states that, while both titles are not in the same universe, they are working on easter eggs and other connections to tie both games together. While Soulframe is neither a prequel or sequel to Warframe, the developer hopes that these connections at least give fans of the free PC game something to look out for, with Crookes telling us, “Warframe players will notice some similarities to certain looks or choices.”
Soulframe platforms and crossplay
So far, Soulframe is only confirmed for PC, though a next-gen console release is likely.
With this limited information, it’s also unknown whether Soulframe will support crossplay. For the longest time, Warframe had no sort of crossplay implemented at all. This changed with the game’s release on PS5, allowing cross-gen play between current and last-gen PlayStation consoles. It was also revealed during TennoCon 2022 that full crossplay between all systems would finally be arriving, though this is still in development.
And that’s everything we know so far about Soulframe. With development still in its early stages, it might be some time before more gameplay is shown, but we’ll update you once we know more. If you can’t wait, why not take a look at our best Warframe builds and fill your time with Digital Extreme’s other epic MMO, or try one of the best PC games available right now?