Hosted by developer Digital Extremes as a way to celebrate Warframe and Soulframe while previewing the upcoming content for the games, TennoCon has become one of the biggest annual events for fans across the world. This year was no different, with the event’s instance of the con serving as an exciting event full of game previews, behind-the-scenes showcases, and major announcements for the next year of both games. Warframe highlights how the MMORPG can continue to survive and thrive in the modern gaming space, especially when it has such a loyal fan base.
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ComicBook.com attended the event in London, Ontario, getting to speak with some of the developers and voice talent that make the game so special. From teases to the next direction of Warframe to Soulframe‘s hopes to match its older sister title, TennoCon 2026 had some of the biggest Digital Extremes announcements in years. Here are the biggest announcements for Warframe and Soulframe fans out of TennoCon 2026 and why the people behind both games were so excited to show off everything new to players across the world.
Warframe Is Going Gangster With “Tau”
The big announcement for Warframe fans is the formal announcement of Warframe: Tau, which sets up the cosmic ring city of Fornax. Quickly established in the preview as a crime thriller mixed with the alien weirdness that has always helped Warframe stand out, the new narrative chapter sets the stage for players to deal with a crime boss known as the Hundra who has been using the drug trade in the city to control the inhabitants. To do this, players will have the option to recruit a new Chimera Warframe named Brysko.
Voiced by Matthew Mercer, Brysko feels very much like the Warframe approach to noir, with brass knuckles for close-combat situations, explosive playing cards, and a magnum revolver befitting any hard-boiled gumshoe detective. The exploration of Fornax also opens the door to casinos, slums, and cosk, all adding more to that noir-influenced approach. Along the way, the game will also introduce new enemies like Fornax Drowners and raise plenty of new challenges for the player to overcome. This is on top of several updates to the game’s previous content, including a new story quest for Iceblade of Narin, a rework of the Banshee class, and the inclusion of an Orokin vessel for journeying across the cosmos.
“Honestly, the Banshee rework thing was just lucky,” Warframe Director of Community and LiveOps Megan Everett explained to ComicBook, referring to the previous TennoCon where a fan had asked a question about a potential rework of the Banshee class. “That person came out of nowhere and said ‘Banshee rework,’ and we had to try really hard not to spoil it. [Laughter] I think it’s the community team’s role and job to have that pulse on the community. What Warframes do they want reworked? What conspiracy theories do they think are happening with Tau? Last year we set up Tau; everyone knew that was going to be the next step. So it was very interesting to see people theorize what Tau was going to look like, and I’m almost 99% sure the community agreed it wasn’t going to be a happy place, so I’m glad that we achieved that at the very least. The “Tau Mafia” thing was actually going to be the story last year, but then we decided we needed to tell the story of the Old Peace first. We’ve been sitting on this for a good amount of time.”
Reflecting on the TennoCon presentation and the importance of Tau to the creative team, Warframe Creative Director Rebecca Ford noted that “When we’re taking you to Tau… this is a world that was meant to be a utopia. It got its hands on some drugs and crime, and now it is sci-fi Boardwalk Empire. It’s Prohibition meets The Sopranos meets Blade Runner. It has all the feelings of that Rust Belt America, but in Tau, with the noirish layer on top. Crime ruling the streets is really one of the most important parts of it. That was a non-negotiable for me. We’re doing a mafia story, and we’re dealing with addiction. That is the first impression of Tau. It can’t be anything else. It has to be that… It’s motivating to know that we can still surprise people with a theme. You have broken men that come back home, and now they’re in the Prohibition era.“
“If you have a Warframe and you have this new solar system, you have freedom to do whatever you want. We could have gone a million directions, but the addiction theme and the post-war experience for the sentience just seemed so crucial to lean into. It’s no accident that the world you see today is one where some of the headlines will feed you stories about fentanyl addiction and the opioid crisis and all that. Our city here in London, Ontario, is equally ravaged by these things. What we’re hoping to do with the themes of that in this game is to really shine a light on a very alien version of a very human problem. For the actual quest and the world-building, I think it’s going to really hit hard for a lot of people. Maybe in your life you’ve had a family member, friend, or even a stranger on the street, and you know that they’ve given up hope. There’s something about the circumstances of the world and how they see themselves in it that has created this disease of addiction, and we’re going all in on that. That’s our job.”
Soulframe’s Voice Stars Tease An Expansive New World
Coming out alongside this new content for Warframe is Soulframe, a new massive title that shifts the focus towards a high-fantasy setting. The gameplay demo shown off at TennoCon hinted at a massive world and plenty of high-stakes combat, all filtered through the same inventive design and compelling worldbuilding that has made Warframe such an enduring title. The sister game for Warframe, Soulframe’s ambitious fantasy world-building was on clear display, ranging from gorgeously vivid cutscenes to touches of gameplay that hint at the earth-shaking attacks that will be crucial to the gameplay. The game will include plenty of impressive additions, including hulking mounts that the player can explore the world atop as well as some exciting combat with a sword/whip fusion that feels deeply influenced by Ivy from the Soul Calibur series.
It’s a bold new world, one where even the people involved in the game production are surprised by its scale and scope. Kim Bonifay, the voice of the potions expert Verminia in Soulframe, noted that “I think walking into it, I really didn’t know much about the world in general. They didn’t give me that much information before walking into the recording session, so it was really fun to just ask as many questions as I could. I was figuring out the language they were building and the world that they were building. We kind of walked into it blind, which I think made it kind of fun. We’re almost exploring and receiving this world as the fans are. It feels like a developing story still, and there’s more and more to discover. I’m sure there’s more lore about our characters that we’ll continue to learn as time goes on, but I think it’s just trusting the team that they know what they’re doing. We’re just instruments for their stories.”
Fellow actor Dan Pye, who plays the cheery-looking Avakot, recalled a similar experience, revealing he first saw his character at the audition. “I‘m pretty sure I got an image of Avokat when I auditioned. I think there was a little description of his height and little things about him. The voice just came naturally to me from the description, from his height, and I usually try and do things differently to what the character looks like first and then either stay in that place or move from that point in the direction that I’m directed. But I stayed true to the look, and it just felt right… I think the director really carries you through the process. When you can put a lot of trust in the director to keep you right and make sure you know what’s happening in your situation, it all comes together.”
“I’m just hoping that people are going to be as attached to it as they are to Warframe,” Bonifay admitted. “We’re coming in, and we feel like the little sister, you know? It’s been super interesting to see how people react to even just Warframe and are in awe of everything that has happened with that game. We’re just hoping that at some point we can offer a world that people will love just as much. When you’ve got something like Warframe, which is an incredibly successful game, you’ve got the pressure to make sure that you’re bringing it your all with something like Soulframe.
“It adds too much pressure when you think about it on that big of a scale. For me, it’s more about honing it down. It’s about two things: trusting the team that they know what they’re doing and then trusting that I can do my job on my end to create a character that I believe is interesting. The hope is that others think that too. Because if you’re trying to please everyone, that’s not a great way to approach it. So for me, it was more about having fun doing this voice. Does the DE team look like they’re having fun listening to her? And if so, then why wouldn’t everybody else enjoy her?“
Given the reception Soulframe experienced at TennoCon, it seems like fans are already eager to dive into that world with them. The game is currently in a “Preludes” test run on PC with plans to expand to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S upon the formal release. A lot of new content is expected to be made available in the alpha later this year, including the Fable Quest “Warsongs,” which further expands the setting and the story in some key ways, although there aren’t any formal release dates yet for either.
TennoCon Proves What The Warframe Fanbase Already Knows
TennoCon 2026 was the biggest year for the convention yet, a love letter to the community behind Warframe‘s enduring success and the excitement surrounding Soulframe. Attendees were on hand to check out showcases of the game development cycle, see actor reveals, and cheer on cosplayers during the high-stakes contest. A massive concert of the game score, coupled with gorgeously choreographed dances courtesy of Cirque Revolution and Tha Groove, brought the music of the game to life in a visually and sonically impressive. It’s not lost on the Digital Extremes team how much the event means to fans, who travel from across the world to London, Ontario, to see everything first-hand. It’s the same passion they bring to the game on a daily basis, too.
“The one unspoken mantra we have that is true: with every deploy, we should do something that makes the game better,” Ford said. “That is a high bar we set for ourselves. It doesn’t always work out that way, so you have to react quickly. It’s a very tactile way of looking at the build as a specimen. It’s in the lab, it’s undergoing experiments. One day, we’ll add an open-world roguelike. The next, we’ll add a noir gangster story. You have to see if the anatomy of what it is you’ve made is improved or better off. When you view the build as an actual life form, I think it gives you an idea of what is needed.”
“What surprised me for this particular TennoCon was that, 11 years in, it’s the first time we’re showing a new Warframe. We always do it from the perspective of Excalibur. We never actually use Tenocon to show off a new Warframe that’s integrated into the narrative. It’s a huge challenge and a risk, because you need to have the Warframe done, which is a huge team effort. But it also needs to work in the story. It can be shocking; we’ve never done it like this.” However, it’s that embrace of the new that feels most consistent with Warframe, a game that has only gotten larger and more expansive with time.
Everett recalled how the 2025 TennoCon presentation was the “sweatiest nervous I’ve ever been for a demo.” However, that has only made this year seem all the more exciting by comparison. “In a surprising way, it helped. Because we’re introducing this brand new world and this brand new everything. No one knows what this looks like. We’re taking our time in this demo to really soak it in and look around… I think the vibe of [the Warframe “Tau” reveal] is just so different. We’re toning it back a little bit, but it makes sense because we want players to really drink in that world and really let the players experience it because we’ve been playing this demo for eight months now. We’ve seen it to death, and and it doesn’t surprise us anymore. But to someone who’s never seen it, we want them to have that first-time experience. I’ve seen streams where, you know, people are showing off things, and the commentary is like, “Wait, slow down!’ I think it’s important to have those moments and really just let fans drink it all in.”
Warframe is currently available for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices. Soulframe is currently in alpha and does not have a formal release date.
