Finnish free-to-play games maker Nitro Games has signed an expanded agreement towards the development of a mobile Warframe iteration, receiving approximately €3.5 million in additional funding to complete the title.
Warframe creator and IP holder Digital Extremes agreed to the funding in the latest expansion atop the €1.2 million granted in August 2023, with deals between the companies dating back as far as July 2021. The latest brings the total order value to around €12.5 million.
Platform war
Nitro Games expects the mobile adaptation of Warframe to be completed sometime this year, which marks 11 years since Digital Extremes first launched the PC version in 2013. In the years since, Warframe has expanded to consoles - landing on the latest hardware from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo - and even introduced cross-play support in 2022.
The title advanced another step further by fully implementing cross-platform saves only last month, in January 2024, meaning progress on PC can be transferred to Switch and PlayStation 5, for example. And with this cross-platform capability allowing players to engage on the go via Switch already, it makes perfect sense for a fully mobile adaptation to be next.
"With this agreement, Nitro Games provides Digital Extremes with game development services for a mobile version of the free-to-play action game, Warframe," Nitro Games stated. "This agreement follows Nitro Games’ strategy, where in addition to developing games based on its own IP, the company also offers its services to selected customers."
The game itself is an MMO with procedurally generated levels, increasingly common today with the power of generative AI, and in this way placing Warframe ahead of its time. Blending open-world areas and fixed level design, the title’s gameplay takes inspiration from shooters, RPGs and close-combat fighters. It also features microtransactions, which will be a natural fit on mobile - arguably the home of microtransactions given their dominance as a business model.
"I am very happy to see our collaboration with Digital Extremes now expanding with a new very exciting project. The opportunity to work on Warframe mobile makes us proud and is a great fit for our vision and strategy," Nitro Games CEO Jussi Tähtinen said at the time of the August 2023 funding.
Nitro Games has previously partnered with TikTok to make HTML5 games Peek a Who and Space Destroyer, too.
