In September of 2022, Digital Extremes hit an extreme milestone with the release of its 50th Warframe, Styanax, alongside the launch of Veilbreaker. Our focused outreach to gaming media kept the hype train moving from announcement to launch with enough guides and features to fill a coliseum.
In a community livestream, Digital Extremes got the celebrations started with Ascension Day: a 2D animated film that introduced Styanax with both relentless style and an emotional punch. We knew this trailer was something special right off the bat. Keeping that in mind, we focused our pre-pitch messaging on the artistic and creative merits of the short to secure coverage with key North American media, such as GameSpot, PC Gamer and Shacknews.
That said, the announcement that Warframe would release its 50th ‘Frame for free alongside an all-new campaign was the pièce de resistance of Devstream 163. Warframe, at its inception, was a self-published, free-to-play MMO – the fact that Digital Extremes could give away a Warframe for free was a big deal and showed how far the developer had come since starting out as a small, indie team. We had to make sure media and fans were in on this achievement, so we acted quickly to set up some appropriately hype feature pitches that gave fans an inside look at some of the 49 Warframes before Styanax.
We worked directly with Digital Extremes and GameSpot to create the ultimate Warframe tier list. With player data from DE, we highlighted the strongest ‘Frames in the game and showed off what made each top-tier special. The result was a list that celebrated Warframe and secured a place on GameSpot’s front page.
We also connected Creative Director Rebecca Ford with Game Rant for a list of her personal favorite Warframes. Rebecca is an icon in the Warframe community, and her heartfelt love for her favorite ‘Frames alongside Game Rant’s expertise gave emotional insight into Warframe’s history.
To maximize our reach, we employed our usual hands-on approach to media relations with plenty of assets and details on new expansions. This helped secure tons of Veilbreaker guides with our friends over at Fanbyte, Dot Esports and TheGamer. In the three weeks after launch, we secured 34 guides that helped Warframe fans dominate the galaxy.
Despite all the buzz that usually comes with a video game launch or update, it’s not uncommon for small bumps to appear in the road. During Styanax’s release, the sheer volume of Warframe fans clamoring for Styanax created some technical issues, forcing Digital Extremes to put things on hold. As seasoned PR professionals, we took the challenge in stride. Thanks to fixes from Digital Extremes and our minute-to-minute communication with media, Fanbyte later covered the release positively and updated its article on the rollout issues.
Check out some of our coverage highlights from the Veilbreaker launch campaign below:
Stay tuned for more from Wonacott and Warframe. If Veilbreaker and Styanax caught your eye, Digital Extremes just released Echoes of Veilbreaker, a community-focused update improving endgame content and stability to make Warframe’s latest journey through the Origin System even better.