I’m walking through a Canadian summer night. My body is absolutely tired. I’ve been awake and working since the morning, and I know I won’t be asleep for a few more hours. None of that matters, though; I’ve just attended the first Tennoconcert ever, and the multitude of people around me is just as excited as I am.
2025 marks the tenth Tennocon, a worldwide celebration of all things Warframe where fans gather to enjoy many activities related to this beloved game, and even though there were some incisive debates on whether the convention should be considered a baby or not (and for the record, I agree with you, Megan), the event in itself is far from being baby-sized.
The First Tennocon
Back in 2016, three years after the world was introduced to Warframe, the staff of Digital Extremes had the brilliant idea of hosting an event that would see fans from everywhere converging in the same point in London, Ontario Fans ready to meet the people behind the game they love, possibly buy some merch, and have a good time bonding with other fellow Tenno.
During the Tennolive show on that evening, Digital Extremes showed a teaser trailer for the upcoming expansion, called The War Within, and the way the major Warframe news were delivered from then on changed forever; today, the Tennolive showcase is the main event of the year, where the Warframe audience can take the first look at the upcoming major content for the game.
“You can feel the electricity in the air of our studio, but also on our players,” Community Director, Megan Everett, told me just a few days before. “They’re just on the edge of what is going to happen here; they have their speculations, and they’re ready and excited to pounce into this, which is making me nervous, but the community is in our corner, and we’re in their corner too.”
That comment might sound naive to some of you, mostly because of the unfortunate realities of this industry and the (more than justified) apprehension one would feel about the people in charge of big video games like this. However, you just need to take a look at the people gathering in London before, during, and after the event occurs. Heck, you don’t even need to do that; just log into the game and talk to anyone in the chat, and you’ll see how true Megan’s statement is.
Digital Extremes is a rare case where a studio finds the perfect middle point between listening to the audience while still maintaining its vision, and it pays off for both sides. Years of working closely with the community transparently gave the people at DE the chance to have a direct line of communication with the players, and in return, the playerbase maintains a respectful relationship, where feedback is largely constructive, often leading to a healthy dialogue between them.
It’s not unusual to see a studio in charge of a live-service video game getting destroyed by its own community. However, the Tennocon community shows patience and appreciation, but more than that, a complete openness to waiting and seeing what the studio wants to create before making assumptions, leaving enough room for DE to try new things. I’d like to see someone else attempt to put a romance system on a live-service shooter and live to tell the tale.
“I remember seeing the first reactions to the KIM relationship system,” says Warframe’s Principal Writer Kat Kingsley. “It was the first time the game did something like this, and the reactions were mixed in the forums and social media, so I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. But when it was released, people went to it with open minds, and they loved it, and I love that the game has such a welcoming community that’s willing to try something new like this.”
The People Working Behind The Scenes
Of course, you need two to tango, and even though the players are understanding, the people behind the game are as passionate as they are, which makes complete sense once you talk with them about the favorite part of their jobs. From the designers, to the writers, the PR and Community team, and even the voice actors, everybody working in this game shares a common element: they feel nothing but respect for the people around them.
“I’m fortunate where I get to work with a lot of departments,” says Soulframe’s Creative Director Geoff Crookes. “I came into this industry as a concept artist and animator, many moons ago, but my favorite part is now being in a role where I get to work with different teams on different parts of the game, helping them build those parts and then have it all come together.
This time of the year is creatively and emotionally draining, with a lot of pressure, but we went through the Soulframe demo earlier, and it blew me away. I love seeing just how good the team is.”
“For me, for sure, it’s the collaboration,” says Audio Director George Spanos. “We come to work with ideas about different things, and then other people have ideas as well; you combine that stuff, and it turns into something else, which makes it feel alive and rewarding and interesting that way.
That’s when I feel the most closely tied to the game, too, when we’re in the thick of it, like right now with TennoCon stuff solving things and coming together to make solutions, that’s where the fun stuff comes in.”
“Yeah, the people we work so closely with in the team, and watching the magic happen,” says Soulframe’s Lead Designer Scott McGregor. “You know, going into work every day, loading the game up and seeing something new, and the quality of the work.
The dedication of the people that we work with it’s just incredible, and that rush that you feel when it all starts to come together and starts to work makes you want to do it again. There are a lot of us at DE that have worked together for a long time, and I think that mutual respect is super important and makes you want to come to work every day.”
“When you work on so many different games, you see the process behind it, and a lot of it is very rushed,” says Voice Actor Elsie Lovelock. “You know how it goes; people are very crunched, and it is pretty chaotic a lot of the time. But with DE it’s such an opposite experience of that and they’re so welcoming to us as, as the actors, which is an experience that we’re not really used to in general.”
“You definitely get the feeling they are making the game that they want to play,” adds Voice Actor Amelia Tyler, “and that philosophy changes absolutely everything in it.”
The First Tennoconcert And A Game Made With Love
On the opening night of the event, I got to experience the first Tennoconcert, where a lot of Warframe:1999 songs were played, but also older tunes from past updates. If you told me 12 years ago I’d be one day singing songs from this game at the top of my lungs in an actual concert venue, there is no way I would have believed you.
And yet, during TennoLive the next day, when the big Trailer for the upcoming Warframe content started playing on the massive stage at the RBC Center, I found myself in a chair, between two strangers, cheering loudly as Excalibur Prime was summoning a sword the size of a building.
Once the trip was over, and even during the last week, I couldn’t help but keep asking myself: How is it possible for these folks to succeed in creating a game that still keeps gaining adepts after more than a decade, while also fostering what might probably be the best community in gaming? Not many studios treat the people working in them the way DE does, and even fewer studios have communities that love the games as dearly as the Warframe community does.
In time, I realized I already had the answer, and as cheesy and easy to say as it is, the answer is: love.
Simple to understand and yet difficult to emulate, it is still possible to transform a game into an everlasting experience if the people working on it love what they do, and the people playing through it love it as much as they do. I know I’m biased, and you might say it’s a naive answer, but I dare you to go to London, Ontario, during that time of the year, and take a closer look. You might not believe a game like this can still exist these days, but we’re Tenno, we believe.
