Who doesn’t love a little competition? In the tech world, you’ve got “flagship killers” as an actual mobile segment, and in the gaming world, it comes in the form of a comparatively smaller developer influenced by the big guys and gives them a run for their money. While we’re all excited for Elden Ring‘s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC to make its way, it might not all be smooth sailing for FromSoftware.
For, you see, there stands another challenger in the ring now… Soulframe, by developer of Warframe fame – Digital Extremes. A much appreciated developer, known for delivering players a free-to-play story-driven experience, now has Soulframe in their lineup for a late 2024 release.
Soulframe has an impressive blend of some heavy-hitters!
Having been in development for years, Soulframe has some visible Elden Ring influences. Which is in no way a bad thing, since Soulframe looks like it has a unique blend of FromSoftware’s title and Digital Extremes’ own Warframe.
Led by Steve Sinclair, the former Warframe Creative Director, this Fantasy MMORPG is going to be slower than their previous outing. As Sinclair himself confirmed (via PC Gamer),
It’s a long-running game, it’s going to be free-to-play and all of those things you can expect from a Digital Extremes game, but the pacing is kind of inverted. Where Warframe is fast and frenetic, Soulframe is going to be slow and pensive.
Set to be a co-op vs. environment title, it will follow the journey of players as an Envoy who travels between the Physical and Soul Worlds. The flow of the game and your character’s journey is set to be determined by the virtues of courage, spirit, and grace, which serve as core stats.
While the environment seems Elden Ring-esque, the combat of this game is far from it. If anything, the combat has more of a renowned 2020 title influence (via PC GamesN)! Per Sinclair-
There are a lot of other influences there; great melee combat games like Ghost of Tsushima are huge ones as well. You’ll probably notice that the camera is a bit more like Ghost and less like Elden Ring.
It would seem this title is shaping up to be Digital Extremes’ best outing yet, and one that could hurt Shadow of the Erdtree‘s sales, should it get a 2024-end release.
Is Shadow of the Erdtree about to face some serious competition?
While the unexpected trailer reveal last night got us all hyped for the DLC, it does raise some questions about its pricing. $40 for a DLC? That feels very Ubisoft-like. While we hope it’s not a blatant cash-grab, it’s still a huge amount for a DLC. So, is Shadow of the Erdtree going to deliver hours of content similar to the base game, or maybe close to it?
The Dark Souls and Bloodborne expansions ranged between $10 and $25 and delivered enough hours to keep Soulsborne fans hooked. In an interview with IGN, Hidetaka Miyazaki revealed that the DLC’s map should chalk up to the size of Limgrave, if not larger. So, that’s at least 30 hours right there.
It might just be the most polarizing pricing ever. It certainly has raised eyebrows for fans of the game, and it might even be worth considering an F2P title – Soulframe! If it does everything Elden Ring can do in terms of story, combat, and environment, FromSoftware needs to rethink their pricing. What’s more, if free-to-play wasn’t attractive enough, Soulframe is a co-op MMORPG.
While there is no release date in sight yet, even an end-of-year release for Soulframe could hurt Erdtree‘s sales due to players that were waiting for a sale, or perhaps FromSoftware’s price correction.
