As you might have noticed, Bungie’s Destiny 2 landed on PC yesterday—which is a pretty big deal given the first game skipped our platform of choice, and it seems this one is really good.
Recently, Warframe launched its Plains of Eidolon update, which added open world mechanics to the shooter for the first time. Naturally, comparisons with Destiny followed—but Warframe developer Digital Extremes feels the two sci-fi juggernauts can happily coexist within the PC sci-fi landscape.
“I think it’s an exciting [time] to be a PC gamer who likes sci-fi because, holy crap, one of the biggest franchises ever has come to PC,” Digital Extremes’ live operations and community producer Rebecca Ford tells us. “First of all, I have to mention that. It’s only a good thing from our point of view because the comparisons do get drawn a lot, and for me personally sci-fi as a genre is getting stronger and stronger, which is what I love to see.
“For us, our game is free, it has five years of random things we’ve thrown in to make the open zones feel really unique: we have jet packs, we have fishing, we have mining—it’s a lot more like an MMO almost at this point than just a straight shooter. And that means that they [Warframe and Destiny 2] continue to be games going in different directions. Largely, it just means that sci-fi gamers are getting a little spoiled right now, which is always a good side to be on.”
Without putting words in her mouth, I suggest to Ford that her stance suggests Warframe and Destiny 2 can coexist on PC, despite the overarching comparisons and perceived similarities.
“Absolutely,” she says. “I’m a consumer of a lot of cultures and I consume a lot of culture that I’m sure people feel are competing. From my world I just love to see genres that I love get unique entries into them.
“They really are unique games foremostly. I don’t know if you can fish in Destiny, for example, I don’t think you can. But there’s also things in Destiny you can’t do in our game. At the end of the day, because the aesthetic is a bit quirky sci-fi, they do get compared. I’m just happy for players that they get the beauty that is another platform.”