ORCUS RELAY, PLUTO—A crowd of Tenno have gathered in the relay to voice their concerns in regards to Digital Extremes’ aggressive updating schedule for Warframe. This coalition of Tenno have one simple message: Digital Extremes must stop adding new content to the game.

Warframe’s aggressive update schedule has left many of these Tenno feeling burned by Digital Extremes. The majority of the crowd gathered in the Relay are demanding one massive update dedicated to bugfixing only while others while a few insist that they can’t keep up with the pacing of new content. Warframe has already seen 18 massive updates which have piled on more and more new content and well over 100 additional smalller updates referred to as Hotfixes which range from fixing bugs or adding new content. Some Hotfixes even have sub-Hotfixes which have been used to introduce new equipment and content in the past (such as the Itzal and Saryn Prime).

“Warframe is still in “beta” according to the developers” said ArtisanSponge, MR22, as she made air-quotes to accentuate the beta tagline. Warframe’s perpetual beta status has long been a point of contention by those critical of Digital Extremes’ rapid update cycle. “But what good is a “beta” if they’re not going to use it to fix bugs? It’s about time they stop adding broken, underdeveloped new features and instead concentrate on what’s already here and broken. How can they expect to make any money with so much broken content?”

Update 19 had originally been planned as one complete update with substantial content updates, but in an effort to deliver new content faster to players the update had been split into three parts: Lunaro, Specters of the Rail, and The War Within. Each update thus far has brought with it substantial changes to gameplay systems in Warframe as well as several dozen bugs to interfere with gameplay. Critics have claimed that Digital Extremes has abused their beta status as a marketing ploy in order to give the illusion of special access to the game and Digital Extremes has firmly kept the position that the beta tag is justified by the constant updating and reworks made for Warframe.

Sheldon Carter, Warframe’s Studio Manager, replied to press inquiries regarding the protests from the Tenno:

“We understand our players’ frustrations better than anyone else and we always listen to their feedback. “The War Within” was named after the constant internal struggle we face here at Digital Extremes — How can we give our players what they want and still innovate the game? We want Warframe to continue to be the best beta testing experience anyone has ever had and sometimes that means we have to add bugs to new content to maintain an authentic beta testing experience. Without adding new bugs with each of these updates, the players won’t have that driving sense of progression as we continue to fix them incrementally over time.”

The War Within is currently expected to arrive in early August for the PC platform and features a brand new cinematic quest to follow the events of The Second Dream. It will feature the twin Grineer queens and progress the story to show Teshin’s role in the Warframe universe as well as linking together the Orokin with the current forces at play in the galaxy. The update will bring with it an update to the Mod Fusion system, the new warframe Titania, a new Sentinel companion, replayable quests, a bug which allows players to equip Kavats as primary weapons, new weapon skins which inexplicably cannot be used on their designated weapons, as well as over a hundred planned bugs for players to discover on their own.