Digital Extremes Ltd. is a Canadian video game developer founded in 1993 by James Schmalz. They are best known for creating Warframe, a free-to-play cooperative online action game, and co-creating Epic Games' Unreal series of games. Digital Extremes is headquartered in London, Ontario. In 2014, 61% of the company was sold to Chinese holding company Multi Dynamic, now Leyou, for $73 million.[3] In May 2016 Leyou exercised a call option and increased their stake to 97% of Digital Extremes for a total consideration of $138.2 million US.[4] In December 2020, Tencent bought Leyou for 1.3 billion dollars, which included the majority stake in Digital Extremes that Leyou held.
History
Founder James Schmalz created Epic Pinball, published by then shareware publisher, Epic MegaGames. Bolstered from the success of Epic Pinball[5] and the rising technology movement in the mid-'90s toward realistic 3D graphics, Schmalz founded Digital Extremes in 1993 and the company began co-development with Epic on what would become Epic's Unreal franchise.[6]
According to Scott Miller, the cofounder of the video game company 3D Realms, Digital Extremes was willing to take over development of their much-delayed game Duke Nukem Forever in 2004, but the proposal was rejected by others at 3D Realms, which Miller described as a "fatal suicide shot" for the project.[8]
After years of working in the same universe with Unreal, Digital Extremes broadened its library and technology with development of its original intellectual property, Dark Sector. A third-person shooter released in 2008 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC, Dark Sector used Digital Extremes' proprietary game engine, the Evolution Engine.
In October 2014, Sumpo Food Holdings Ltd. acquired a majority share of Digital Extremes, with Perfect World Co. acquiring minority shares.[16][17][18] Sumpo was rebranded as Leyou in 2015, and by June 2016, had purchased the remaining shares in Digital Extremes.[19][20]
In 2016, it was revealed that Digital Extremes' game Warframe had been hacked, exposing the email addresses of more than 700,000 players.[21]
Digital Extremes opened a development studio in Toronto, Canada, and began operations in January 2018.[2]
In December 2020, Leyou was acquired by Tencent, which included Digital Extremes. The developer stated that this would not change how they operate as they remained independent of Tencent, though through Tencent they would be able to provide better support for the Chinese version of the Warframe client.[22]
In October 2023, James Schmalz stepped down as CEO, with former Warframe director Steve Sinclair promoted to CEO. Community manager Rebecca Ford became the game's new director.[23] In the following month, Digital Extremes reportedly laid off about 30 employees, mostly from their external projects division. While the layoffs were confirmed, the company would not state how many people were affected. They also terminated their partnership with Airship Syndicate, returning Wayfinder to their control.[24]
Projects
Digital Extremes started development of Warframe, a free-to-play title, in 2000. Digital Extremes launched Warframe on PC in March 2013, PlayStation 4 in November, and on Xbox One in September 2014. The company released Warframe on Nintendo Switch in November 2018. Digital Extremes continues to refresh this games-as-a-service title on a regular basis with updates including "Plains of Eidolon" (October 2017), "The Sacrifice" (June 2018), "Fortuna" (November 2018), the Nightwave series (February 2019), "The Jovian Concord" (May 2019), "Empyrean" (Christmas 2019), "Heart of Deimos" (August 2020), "The New War" (December 2021), the "Duviri Paradox" (April 2023), and "Warframe 1999" (December 2024).
Digital Extremes worked with Madison, Wisconsin-based developer Human Head Studios to publish Survived By, a free-to-playbullet-hellMMO with crafting and role-playing elements. Survived By was shut down as of April 2019.[26]
During TennoCon 2022, Digital Extremes announced Soulframe, an upcoming fantasyMMORPG. It also said that it would be publishing a massively multiplayer online game from Airship Syndicate, Wayfinder,[27] but after Wayfinder's release in August 2023, Digital Extremes cut their external games division, leaving Wayfinder under Airship Syndicate's control.[28]
Technology
The Evolution logo
Evolution is Digital Extremes' proprietary game engine.[29] The engine made its debut with Dark Sector and was again utilized in The Darkness II.[30] 2013's Star Trek featured use of the Evolution engine. It is currently utilised in Warframe and the upcoming Soulframe.
Awards and recognition
Since the launch of Warframe, its expansion and popularity has grown, resulting in multiple awards. In late 2017, Warframe won the Steam Labor of Love award,[31] an award nominated by Steam's internal team, but voted on by players. Warframe was nominated in The 2017 and 2018 Game Awards as one of the Best Ongoing Games, losing to Overwatch and Fortnite, respectively.[32]
In early 2018, Warframe won the People's Voice Webby Award for Best Action Game,[33] and ProMax's Best Marketing Campaign of the Year Award.[34] In March 2018, Noclip published the video documentary on the making of Warframe. The two-part feature tells the story of how Warframe succeeded as an independently developed and published game that changed the course of Digital Extremes.[35][36]
Digital Extremes' employment environment has been recognized as one of Canada's Top Employers for 2010, 2011, 2012[37] and through to 2018.[38] Additionally, the company has been recognized as one of Canada's top employers for Young People.[39] In 2010 and 2011, the Financial Post named Digital Extremes one of the 10 best companies to work for in Canada.[40]
On the provincial level, Digital Extremes received the Ontario Small Business Award in 2010.[41] Digital Extremes was also presented with the Large Business of the Year award in 2011 from the London Chamber of Commerce.[42] Digital Extremes was also awarded the Excellence in Human Resources award from The London Chamber of Commerce in early 2012.[43]
