Insisting for years that Warframe and Destiny are not direct competitors, Digital Extremes has often found itself in the position of explaining how different the two games are. Following the release of the latest expansion for Destiny, Steve Sinclair, Creative Director for Warframe, was once again summoned to differentiate the two sci-fi shooters from one another.

Curious fans from both sides of the fence have often asked the question “Which game is better?” over the years in hopes of getting a glimpse of which side of the fence is greener. With the arrival of Destiny: Rise of Iron, it’s no surprise that both communities ares drawing comparisons once more.

Part of Steve’s address to the community was to clear up the misconception that both games borrow ideas from one another. “Sure, Destiny has Xur and we have Baro, but they’re totally different offerings. Xur offers players randomized rare items that are sometimes even exclusive and used for upgrades or consumed on use and appears once every week whereas Baro appears once every two weeks.” Steve went on to add “I know there are some similarities here and there, but really the games play completely differently.”

Steve went on to clarify on how Sorties are different than Nightfall Strikes, Focus is nothing like the class skill trees, Syndicates are only vaguely similar to Factions, and how the Cabal are nothing at all like the Grineer. “I’m sure that we’ve influenced each other in some ways, but the two games could not be any more different.” Specific examples of this drew to comparisons between the robust design of Trials against the poorly implemented Raids in Destiny as well as the mobility system of “Bullet Jumping” in Warframe which has not yet been implemented in Destiny.

Perhaps the most important distinction to be made between the two games is that Destiny focuses more on a “dungeon” system as opposed to utilizing a variety of filler missions or how Warframe offers greater depth for character cosmetic customization. Perhaps it is that Warframe is a free-to-play title whereas Destiny is a paid title or that Warframe remains in a permanent “Open Beta” state despite launching a full year and a half prior to the release of Destiny. Or perhaps the most important distinction to make is that Destiny is being made by the creators of the beloved Halo franchise whereas Warframe is made by the same team that brought us the Star Trek video game adaptation in 2013.