TennoCon 2021 has now come and gone, with Saturday's event offering up a range of announcements for Warframe. The New War expansion coming later this year has to be the biggest reveal, though the announcement of a mobile version of Warframe is no small reveal. Nidus Prime's unveiling, plus the new feature allowing players to swap between characters, are both exciting. But what may have been the show-stealing confirmation is that crossplay and cross-saves are coming to Warframe.
As for the details, Warframe developer Digital Extremes says that it will support crossplay and cross-saves across all of the game's platforms. That means Warframe will support playing with friends regardless of whether they're on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, or Xbox Series X/S. No platform is being left out, nor is there a split among the platforms. Even mobile support is planned. That crossplay and cross-saves will even be coming to the Nintendo Switch shows just how dedicated Digital Extremes is in supporting the feature.
According to the announcement, both crossplay and cross-saves are tentatively planned to be added to Warframe later this year, but no specific date has been announced yet. No explanation was provided for the ambiguous release window. Odds are Digital Extremes' priority was making the announcement at TennoCon, but that implementation is still quite a ways off. That could imply that crossplay and cross-saves could be further delayed, but that's rather normal for any content release during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It's odd to consider that Warframe has come through over eight years of development, over ten major expansions, and endless updates, events, and more, without crossplay and cross-saves. But eventually is better than never, especially when it comes to such major feature as cross-play and cross-saves. Perhaps it was just a matter of getting Warframe out on all platforms first, or perhaps it was a matter of all platforms growing their support of crossplay. Regardless, it's happening.
It really can't be understated how big of a feature addition crossplay and cross-saves will be in Warframe. The game has effectively built several different communities over the past years, which will soon become one large community. Players will also be able to transfer between platforms with ease, carrying over years of investment into their account and characters. It's a big deal, and will make Warframe stand up to new online multiplayer games for years to come.
All in all, 2021 could end up being one of Warframe's biggest and best years yet. By the end of the year, Tennos will be playing through The New War with friends they'd never thought they'd get the opportunity to meet. For online multiplayer games, there's little as special as that.
Warframe is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, with mobile support coming later this year.