Warframe developer announces free-to-play first-person shooter Keystone

Enjoying a long and successful run with its free-to-play co-op online shooter Warframe, Digital Extremes has just revealed that it has formed a second internal development team to work on a new game, the shooter Keystone. Just like Warframe, Keystone is a shooter and also free-to-play, but this time it's a first-person shooter that also includes deck-building strategies. Surprisingly enough, the closed alpha begins later this week on May 26 and you can sign up at the official website for a chance to participate. The alpha only runs for a few days, ending on May 29.

As for the game per se, no trailer was revealed so far and we can only make a guess based on the single piece of artwork that you can see below. It is meant to represent the look and feel of the 1970’s retro-pulp era and players will venture through a multi-verse that begins on the starting square of a mystical board game. Sounds pretty weird, but Warframe also had its share of wackiness and look just how that turned out. Using customized decks of cards will get you some perks such as new powers and weapons – this sounds a bit like what Hi-Rez's Paladins: Champions of the Realm was going for at first but ultimately decided to abandon.

“The long-running success of Warframe has enabled us to build up a second internal team to create a wholly different but equally satisfying game concept that we’re really excited about,” said Sheldon Carter, studio head at Digital Extremes. “Keystone originates from our roots in the FPS world and mixing genres like we have done with Warframe. We believe there’s room to expand the confines of what defines a good FPS and hope our community will see the potential and get on board for the ride.”

While Digital Extremes keeps updating Warframe at a great pace, it honestly seemed a bit weird that the studio never tried to leverage the success of that game to create a second project, connected or not to the same universe, just like Hi-Rez Studios tries to do. The online shooter Keystone may not be tied to Warframe in any visible way, but we're certain we'll see some of the shooting ingredients that made Warframe one of the biggest success stories in free-to-play.