Looking Back at TennoCon 2024

On the day of this being published (9/27/24), Warframe is going to show off their next big update, Koumei & the Five Fates. Until then though, I wanted to take a second to reflect back on my time at TennoCon. This was the first ever gaming convention I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing, and man it was a good one. It is worth noting that this was an article that never saw the light of day before, so there’s a bit more of a formality with this piece. I want people to be able to come on this experience with me, regardless of any pre-existing Warframe knowledge. I think that’s enough preamble, it’s time.


Earlier this year marked 11 years of Warframe. In short, the game has continued to consistently thrive yearly because Digital Extremes is as excited to create the game as we are to play it. With another year comes another TennoCon, the name Tenno comes from the game. Keeping things brief, Tenno are the ancient warriors that control the Warframes, aka the space ninjas seen on the splash image which are essentially armor suits. Tenno from all over come to London, Ontario celebrating what it means to be Tenno while getting excited for what’s to come. This was my very first venture outside of the States, so I was as excited as I was nervous. From the moment I left my house to coming back, those past few days flew by faster than killing Captain Vor. In those few days Digital Extremes achieved the impossible, they left me speechless. I was just pondering the experience it provided and was floored that I got to be a part of it. Never did I think the passion I held for games like Warframe would be acknowledged in a meaningful manner such as this. It’s thanks to conventions like these that allow the fires within everyone to flourish and be proud of what they love. TennoCon 2024 brought a lot to the table, so let’s take a look back at it once more as a refresh.

Shaking off the nerves of still being in a new country for the first time, I was amazed just by looking outside the convention center. Seeing all the fans line up under the bright TennoCon LED screen was a sight to behold. All the various TennoCon shirts from the past nine years, the incredible cosplays, the volume of love was staggering to see. was the realization that there are not very many conventions dedicated to just a singular game anymore. It’s a bit of a dying culture now, just recently this year BlizzCon 2024 was canceled, E3 is dead, who knows what else is on the chopping block. The point is, everyone is here just because of Warframe. One game has managed to evolve to this point after what was not a very well positive beginning which should be an inspiration to many.

TennoCon 2024 differs from years past by hosting a two day event as opposed to a singular day. The first day of TennoCon was to buy merchandise and enjoy the big VIP party, dubbed TennoVIP. Outside of the convention center there were food trucks and a big almost tent-like structure. Entering the tent and seeing the amount of activities was striking. There’s a spot to get your own custom sprayed on shirt which are next to gacha machines with replications of the Relics that are cracked open in the game. There was a custom made Warframe trivia game hosted by Loid, a robot from the game who has a very sophisticated vocabulary as he is an AI, with the best part being the changing expression on his face which is dependent on correct answers. Furthermore there were ‘90s themed arcade games, a bar, a dance floor, photo ops, graffiti wall… these are just words but I’m out of breath thinking about it. Anyone that was attending TennoCon had access to TennoVIP, which if you ask me further enhances the value of the ticket. I’ve been to conventions before, your local anime conventions as well as C2E2 (basically a Chicago Comic-Con if you’re unfamiliar), but again with Warframe being at the center of it all it blew my mind repeatedly throughout the entire trip. That also leads me to mention that because everyone was invited to TennoVIP, the sheer volume of people was a bit too much for me at times which required me to step out and get some air. Realistically, having too many people around that want to celebrate the one thing we’re all there for is a fantastic problem to have. I may not have busted a move but I was happy to just see all these people just having so much fun. It’s one thing to go online and look at pictures of a crowd. This was the first time I’ve ever physically been present at something like this, and while it’s a bit jarring for me and my homebody lifestyle it was still amazing to see.

The second day of TennoCon, however, was the real meat and potatoes of the whole event. Day 2 was the big livestream. There are two major highlights I want to focus on, that being Soulframe and Warframe: 1999. However, there’s a lot that I am simply just going to miss. Should anyone yearn for more information, including some extra updates to Warframe coming before the big 1999 drop, you can check out the VOD here.

Soulframe

To give the briefest of summaries on Digital Extremes, they were a publisher before dedicating all their resources solely into Warframe. For the past 11 years everyone on the team has been working on Warframe and only Warframe. Now, there is a new kid on the block in the form of Soulframe, a brand new fantasy, action-RPG created with a skeleton that loosely resembles that of Warframe. Make no mistake though, Soulframe is a whole separate beast. Not much is known about the story aside from the player being referred to as an “Envoy” and starting off both the demo and the journey is customizing the player’s mother before she abandons everyone.

The demo skips ahead to show off the Envoy falling back into some mystical water and ending up in one of the most stylized bases of operations I’ve ever seen. During the discussion portion of Soulframe, Digital Extremes CEO Steve Sinclair mentions “We know what we did calling it Soulframe… We would’ve called it ‘Elden-frame’[but…]” fully acknowledging the inspiration and that’s perfectly okay with me. Plenty of games borrow things from others all the time so “another souls like” is immediately going to come to mind with how on-the-nose the title is. Not that it’s a bad thing though. I mention any of this at all because that base of operations is essentially the Roundtable Hold from Elden Ring, if that makes it easier to visualize. There are stations positioned around the area and within those areas are Ancestors. Ancestors specialize in different functions so you have one Ancestor who will help you craft for example. There is a big dog and yes the good boy can be petted.

After putting on an intimidating helmet the demo goes back to the main world. A bit of exploration is shown off with a bird acting as an objective guide. As some distance is covered there is a patrol that appears, sitting around a campfire. One of the abilities is shown to go invisible and we see a prompted backstab mechanic after sneaking up from behind. Now it’s full blown combat, which honestly struck me with more similarities to Ghost of Tsushima than it did Dark Souls. There isn’t a lock on system, typically a staple of a “souls-like” but absent here. It didn’t seem to matter because combat appears to be “flowy.” What I mean is, you aren’t just mashing buttons to win. Fighting looks more like a dance; you’re waiting for the right opportunity to move. Remember this isn’t Warframe, players are not meant to have the power of blowing up a planet ready at a moment’s notice. It is a much more methodical approach to combat and one I can appreciate. The sound effects in particular I was floored with. In the ballroom and hearing the loud clangs of steel banging against armor and bone was just immensely satisfying to listen in on.

The demo goes on to feature a mini boss that runs away after a few hits, as well as the quest to unlock another one of those previously mentioned Ancestors. This one we at least have a name and some personality for, Verminia. She’s concerned for the Envoy’s style, which sounds out of place but she’s got so much charm that it fits like a glove. To harken back to the system of Warframe customization where you can select random colors to be painted across your gear, Verminia serves this purpose to the Envoy. Once the player can swap colors with Verminia she can make less than ideal comments if the colors do not go well together which is both clever and hilarious. However, every Ancestor is multi-purpose. For example, Verminia can also tinker with things like potions and elixirs, but we haven’t seen too much to be able to go into any sort of grave detail. 

There is still plenty to learn about Soulframe, as an official release is nowhere to be seen. Details are scarce, but discovery is meant to be the name of the game. In terms of playing Soulframe, the only way to do it currently is by signing up through Soulframe’s website here. Digital Extremes is sending out invites weekly so the sooner an account is made the greater the chances are to experience the game. So far, the game looks absolutely gorgeous and with the lack of information we have I’m left with a desire for more and I cannot wait to see what else is in store.

Warframe: 1999

Warframe’s Whisper in the Walls update gave us a very small taste for where Tenno are going next, back to the year 1999. TennoCon 2024’s Warframe presentation, called TennoLive, shows off some more that fans can look forward to once Warframe: 1999 launches this winter.

For starters, players will need to have completed the story up until this point. It can take quite some time to get up to this point especially for newer players. Digital Extremes is working on an initiative to make the game more digestible for new players in the future (which is what Koumei and the Five Fates aims to fix) but to ensure the required prerequisites to experience 1999 are met, players can follow along with this guide to follow and complete the mandatory quests.

The 1999 presentation starts off with Arthur, voiced by Ben Starr (Clive Rosfield, Final Fantasy XVI) and he’s looking for his keys while angrily listening to a boy band on the TV. He asks the other Warframes with faces, which are called Protoframes, for his keys and eventually finds them after talking to the remaining five of them. These six make up a brand new Syndicate for Warframe called The Hex, and as Protoframe implies they are inspired by their Origin System counterparts. Arthur is Excalibur, Amir is Volt, Aoi is Mag, and so on. Once players complete 1999, they will all be unlockable as extra skins for their respective Warframes and can be swapped in during missions with a special emote given to players. The Hex can also be interacted with throughout the campaign via instant messaging on computers in hopes of getting a New Year’s kiss from one (any) of them. Yes, Warframe’s going to have a romance system not long after the minigame of giving birth. The quest will be fully replayable upon completion, so anyone who wants an Infinity Gauntlet of kisses will have their work cut out for them.







The characters in 1999 have so much personality thanks to the cast that lent their voices to their respective characters. Among the cast is James Conlin, who’s been wanting to be a voice actor for years. With the help of Digital Extremes and Make a Wish, Warframe: 1999 was able to give James his video game acting debut. The crowd cheered James on to congratulate landing a role in a game as huge as Warframe, and his performance led to an even bigger eruption of applause. Hopefully he gets picked up for some larger than life roles in the future, he deserves it.




Once the mission begins, 1999 shows off the Atomicycle, which is a new vehicle that can be summoned mid mission and in open world zones such as the Plains of Eidolon once the campaign is completed. It’s fast with the capacity for extremely tight turns allowing anyone to live out that Akira fantasy. Warframe’s signature combat is here and in full swing so luckily it isn’t going to play like a game from a 90s computer. There are plenty of urban bound gunfights, explosions, it’s as high-octane as anyone who plays Warframe would expect and that is music to my ears.

On the subject of music, I previously mentioned that Arthur was listening to a boy band earlier, and the song stuck in my head wasn’t because it was just super catchy. You see, that boy band, On-lyne, is actually an infested lich that we brought back to the present Origin System from 1999. Now that they’re here and annoying the hell out of Cephalon, it's up to the Tenno to put a stop to them. The song they released, “Party of Your Lifetime” can be listened to on all platforms including YouTube and I have not been able to stop listening to it for months. They were onto something making them infected liches. At the convention this was the song they concluded the presentation to and looking out and seeing people dancing and shaking their glow sticks around left me breathless because everyone is really getting down to the best boy band outside of this Earth. The amount of content soon to be released can be comparable to the aforementioned Whisper in the Walls, which players who have experienced it in its entirety knows that there’s quite a bit to do so safe to say that boredom is not in the forecast once 1999 drops and even after the story finishes.

All in all, Digital Extremes have outdone themselves with TennoCon 2024, and even months later it still feels surreal. Even if I didn’t physically go, the amount of content to look forward to with the Soulframe Preludes, Warframe’s Koumei and the Five Fates which will be unveiled later today (as of this publication date), and then eventually 1999 in the winter. However, being there and getting a first hand look for just how big of a game Warframe truly is, it shifted a lot of things into perspective for me. It’s been on my bucket list to go to a gaming convention of this caliber for the longest time. I never experienced E3 before it died, and as I mentioned before it’s not as if conventions for specific titles are a commodity now. That’s what makes TennoCon so unique, it’s that the game has been out for so long people have grown up with it. I started Warframe on my PS4 in Freshman year, now I’m a college graduate that just left the country and came back singing a song from the alt-90s celebrating that exact same game. There is no other product I can get that sort of experience with, thus cementing Warframe as one of the most special games I’ve ever had the joy of playing. Now it’s provided both an internal and external sense of fulfillment I don’t think I can ever replicate. Thanks again to Digital Extremes for making this all possible, until we rise again fellow Tenno. Which if you get your daily logins like I do, will be very soon.