The interviewees this time are different.
Fred is the head of the Partner Team under Tencent's Level Infinite that supports Digital Extremes; you can simply understand him as the bridge between Digital Extremes and Tencent. And Kiai is the head of Level Infinite's domestic publishing business.
This is also our first time going so deep behind the scenes of publishing to understand the stories of these two key figures and Digital Extremes.
Below is the full text of the interview.
Fred, Head of the Partner Team supporting DE under Level Infinite
Q: After Tencent fully acquired Digital Extremes, Warframe not only did not suffer from "acclimatization issues" but instead achieved repeated successes and appeared in Tencent's financial report. How was this "harmonious" cooperation model between the two parties established?
Fred:Of course, any cooperation will have some interesting adjustments in the initial stage, and various challenges will be encountered, all of which we have walked through together.
And all of this has given us a deeper understanding and recognition of each other's strengths—what each side can bring, and this reciprocal relationship built on mutual respect and understanding constitutes the most core cornerstone of our cooperation.
Q: Warframe has been operating for 13 years and even appeared in Tencent's financial report this year. How does Tencent view the methodology behind its long-term growth? How does it view the position of loot-based games in the current market? What work has Tencent done in domestic and international publishing? What role does Warframe play in Tencent's overseas game business layout?
Fred:First, I must say that over the past few years, Digital Extremes has performed excellently in terms of closeness with the community.
This is exactly what Tencent values highly.
Tencent has always been committed to achieving a first-class level in player service and user support—and this is exactly what is ingrained in Digital Extremes' DNA. So when Tencent and Digital Extremes came together, the first, and arguably most core point of alignment we reached, was shared values.
Digital Extremes is not only strong in global publishing but also excels at connecting with players in specific niches. Through its portfolio of games, Tencent has proven its efficient capabilities to accelerate and enhance Digital Extremes' work. Our Partner Team, named Fuel, lives up to its name by adding momentum to Digital Extremes' efforts in regional publishing and player engagement, helping them reach more players.
This is precisely why Tencent and Digital Extremes connect so well—Digital Extremes was already doing these things, and with Tencent's help, they can do more and connect with more players.
Warframe actually plays an important role in Tencent's global cooperation layout. We have accumulated many excellent cases through our collaboration with Digital Extremes, which are closely related to Digital Extremes' own strengths and can also benefit Tencent, other partner companies, and investment partners—by promoting the pipelines and cooperation methods we have established to other partnerships. This is a very powerful supplement, and we are very happy about it.
Q: Digital Extremes is known for its "radically honest" developer culture and direct community communication with players. Tencent faces a different situation, needing to handle domestic compliance, version pacing, and commercial sustainability. During the磨合 (adjustment period) of the past few years, have there been any clashes in philosophy? How did Tencent handle these clashes and balance the differences between the two?
Fred:As everyone knows, Digital Extremes has been operating Warframe for 13 years. When Tencent began collaborating with Digital Extremes, they were already very successful in connecting with players. So we would never condescend to lecture them or try to change them, causing them to deviate from their existing strengths.
I believe this is exactly where we and Digital Extremes align highly. It is a win-win cooperation—we let Digital Extremes do what they do best, which is focusing on their core strength of community; while Tencent, through other games in its portfolio, has already accumulated corresponding experience and insights, understanding how to connect with players in specific regions in different ways. We are very familiar with domestic policy compliance requirements and player preferences, and we have corresponding expert teams that can provide advice and assistance.
Q: Fuel is a Partner Team specifically established by Level Infinite for Digital Extremes—how does it operate specifically?
Fred:What I want to say is that our work mainly revolves around three pillars—Publishing, Product & Technology, and Amplifying Voice. Simply put, we deeply study how Digital Extremes works, see what they are doing in these three directions, and then think about how we can inject fuel into each of these efforts.
We can mobilize resources from Tencent's central teams to boost what Digital Extremes is doing, helping them reach a wider audience; we can also use player behavior research to help them better understand users in specific regions, establishing better connections with the players we hope to attract to experience Warframe.
The first pillar is publishing. As mentioned earlier, Tencent continues to support Digital Extremes in community management, branding, operations, and more.
The second pillar is product. We have teams helping them conduct user research, market surveys, and market analysis, providing data guidance when they determine character and product design directions in the future.
The third pillar is technology. For instance, when the Android version launched this February, Tencent's strong technical capabilities in mobile game development provided significant support in Android optimization and adaptation for low-end devices. Our technical experts also directly participated in the R&D of the Android version, helping Digital Extremes connect with more players.
Q: Creative interference conflicts often arise between overseas studios and domestic publishers. What industry reference value does the cooperation model of "non-interference in R&D creativity, only providing full-link localization support" between Digital Extremes and Tencent have for overseas long-term games entering China?
Fred:What I want to say is that Warframe and Digital Extremes mean more to many players than just a game and a game company—Warframe is a lifestyle, a home-like presence that has accompanied many players for so many years.
Therefore, Digital Extremes has complete autonomy over "where to take the game." They know best how to proceed. They have always listened to players' voices and made that their core focus.
Our way of cooperating with them, as I just said, is more about understanding their ideas, adding fuel to these ideas, or providing new perspectives. Of course, sometimes we also give some pushes—like "Hey, we found this gameplay direction might be very strong and have great potential"—and then we discuss it together.
But ultimately, they judge the priorities; they know best what is best for the players.
Sometimes, through this "+1" approach, the ideas we refine together become stronger than what either party could achieve alone. This is the value of such collaboration—we can have honest dialogues, trusting each other's strengths in knowledge, product development, and data. This allows the core team to maintain its independence and vision while making Everythinggj a bit stronger. It's this "+1" that makes Everythinggj a little better.
Of course, the premise for this cooperation to succeed is precisely that Digital Extremes has already established such a close connection with their community.
Kiai, Head of Level Infinite's Domestic Publishing Business
Q: If you were to list a report card for the past 5 years of CN server operations, what breakthroughs or milestones would you value most? Under Tencent's current long-term game strategy, how do you define the role of Warframe? Will this positioning affect the intensity and direction of resource investment in the next three years?
Kiai:Since taking over the CN server operations for this project, we have actually done quite a bit of work. Digital Extremes is a development team that highly values its community, as everyone could feel from the atmosphere and interactions at the recent TennoVIP event. Over the past five years, the breakthroughs and milestones we have achieved have all revolved around strengthening the connection between them and the community.
When we first took over, to be honest, CN server users felt somewhat adrift, lacking effective channels for the development team to pay attention to them. Therefore, every step we take is essentially about breaking down these barriers and connecting Digital Extremes with CN server users.
Through continuous communication and mutual understanding, Digital Extremes has also worked with us to improve localization. For example, Chinese translation and understanding of Chinese user preferences—due to language and cultural differences, the transmission of such feedback initially often took a long time. We did a lot of work in this process to ensure that the real voices of Chinese users could be accurately conveyed to Digital Extremes, addressing everyone's issues and driving improvements.
Because much of the work started from zero, if we were to talk about milestones, perhaps every step is a milestone: we built bridges for community communication, user research mechanisms, community feedback channels, creator and ecosystem management systems, etc., and also made Digital Extremes realize that there were many user voices they had not seen before.
Things that seem simple to domestic players and vendors are milestones for us at every step. Including this TennoVIP—it's the first time related events for this game have come to China since its global launch, which is also a new milestone for us. There are many such achievements.
Regarding long-term operational strategies, first, our two sides are very aligned because long-term operations are built on understanding users. As you can see, Tencent's other games have shared much about long-term and user operations. For us, the core of long-term games is truly valuing this group of users: if you don't value users enough or fail to provide content they want, or even exceed their expectations, the game will struggle to remain popular for a long time.
All of Tencent's games strive to serve users in this aspect; we are a company that insists on being user-centric, so Digital Extremes fits us very well. Honestly, perhaps due to the large scale of our business, we sometimes appear constrained. I am also an old practitioner in the game industry, but TennoVIP made me rediscover the passion and emotion of being close to players, reminiscent of the PC online game era or early game events.
Actually, in many aspects of love for users, Digital Extremes does even better than we do. We share the same philosophy in this regard, and they serve as a role model for us in implementing long-term operational strategies.
From a resource investment perspective, Digital Extremes is a very important partner for us, and our philosophies align closely. Thus, Tencent has provided substantial support in various areas, including the inaugural launch of TennoVIP in China—covering cultural exchanges, media relations, event organization, local coordination, and more.
Therefore, in terms of resource allocation, Tencent will continue to lean towards companies that are willing to embrace and diligently serve their users.
Q: From Tencent's perspective, what do you think is the most unique value of Warframe in the current Chinese game market? How do you view unique cultural tags like "Tenno," "Space Hamster," and "Mom's Essence"? What are the differences between domestic and overseas players?
Kiai:First, the game itself is very unique. There are few space-themed action-shooter games on the market, so it possesses strong uniqueness in both gameplay and theme. Internally, we often proudly believe that Digital Extremes is world-class in the Warframe category, and they themselves are constantly improving, never stopping their learning journey.
They have many pursuits in this field, so we are not only leading in the Chinese market but also globally. The value of this uniqueness is undeniable.
In the action-shooter genre, Digital Extremes has always been deeply committed, very persistent, and very "receptive to advice." Just like at the live event downstairs, users raised many sharp questions, which we hadn't told them about in advance—we submit whatever reasonable feedback we collect from players as is, which might be different from the general impression of Tencent.
They sincerely collect feedback from VIP events and communities around the world every year, so in this regard, they are unique.
As for tags like Tenno and Space Hamster, they are very interesting. Honestly, every time I communicate with the team, they tell me a certain video has gone viral and send it to me—our players are very fun, creating a lot of youthful, abstract, and unique content specific to Warframe.
These memes were not created by us; in this regard, our philosophy aligns with the players. We pay close attention to users creating secondary content in the community and also interact and integrate as an official entity. Because we understand the Chinese content ecosystem better, it is easier for us to catch players' memes, allowing the "meme culture" of Warframe CN server to thrive healthily and positively in the community. This makes users who love this culture and Warframe more willing to spread it, allowing Digital Extremes and Tennos in other regions to feel the charm of the CN server community, serving as a bridge between localization and the global community.
Q: What is the atmosphere like in the Warframe Chinese player community? What localized operational strategies has the CN server operations team established for Chinese players?
Kiai:I think the Warframe community is very loving. We have other games of various types, but honestly, Warframe players are like family—very friendly, very creative, and exceptionally passionate about the game. The overall community atmosphere is tolerant and friendly, with everyone willing to help newcomers.
In CN server operations, we initially may have just acted as a bridge to convey user feedback, but now we have started implementing offline events and cultural exchanges in China. This year, we also promoted deep exchange activities such as the Spring Festival Meetup, TennoVIP, and the Campus Tour.
This can be revealed in advance—tomorrow, we have also arranged for them to communicate with a professor specializing in Chinese history. Because they plan to launch a Chang'e Warframe with Chinese style next year, we promoted cultural exchanges to let Chinese culture collide with their creativity, enabling them to create more content that meets the expectations of Chinese users based on an understanding of Chinese culture.
Q: Why was the first stop of TennoVIP placed in Xi'an instead of other cities? What roles do you hope events like the Campus Tour and TennoVIP will jointly undertake? What kind of bond do you want to establish with players?
Kiai:We were also very conflicted at the time. After looking around the community, we found that everyone had been looking forward to TennoVIP being held in China for a long time. The tradition of TennoVIS visiting various cities around the world has continued for many years, but it had never come to China before. Players were asking Digital Extremes when they would come, suggesting many cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Chengdu all at once.
We were initially unsure how to choose, but eventually selecting Xi'an involved some subtle thinking: In the lore of Warframe, Everythinggj begins with the Orokin Empire—their most glorious golden age.
So we thought, what can represent the golden age of Chinese history and culture? After researching a lot of historical materials, we found that Xi'an was the ancient capital of thirteen dynasties, experiencing glorious eras such as Qin, Han, and Tang, which were the most prosperous periods in Chinese history. Thus, we hid this subtle thought and selected Xi'an.
We also hope that beyond being a large-scale user gathering, this event allows Digital Extremes to experience more of traditional Chinese culture and spark some creative collisions. Yesterday, we arranged for Digital Extremes' partners to visit the Terracotta Warriors. I saw their social media posts; they were truly amazed. When meeting players, someone even asked Rebecca if she would consider creating a Warframe inspired by the Terracotta Warriors, and she immediately responded that it was a great idea. We hope that through such formats, they can experience Chinese culture on the ground and understand the cultural soil in which Chinese players reside—Rebecca herself really enjoyed it.
When we first proposed the campus tour, Digital Extremes didn't quite understand, as we also have games going global and know that campus tours are rare overseas due to cultural differences. However, we observed that China has a huge population of university students, and many young people love our games. We really hoped to proactively get closer to users, allowing them to participate in events without having to travel far.
When discussing with Digital Extremes, we share insights on Chinese user conditions and social habits—holding events here allows more campus users to participate. Initially, we were quite persistent, and after they understood, they agreed, which was also a small milestone.
After the first round of events, the response from players in the campus tour was very enthusiastic. They discovered what the campus tour was really like. Chinese players participated more in game co-creation through the campus tour and gradually came to understand and support this initiative.
We ourselves have gained a lot from the campus tour, cultivating many young users. We even discussed with the team that since Warframe is a community-driven game, perhaps in the future, our own product recruitment could be conducted directly at such occasions, truly achieving player co-creation.
Q: TennoVIP events abroad are basically held as bar gatherings. We want to know what efforts the team made behind the scenes to adapt it to the Chinese player ecosystem when hosting it in China? Do you plan to promote it to other cities in China?
Kiai:First, we also talked with users, collecting a lot of opinions from the player side to understand the format they wanted. As everyone saw at the TennoVIP site downstairs, the Q&A session took up a long time, players were very sincere, preparing many small gifts to give personally to Digital Extremes' main creative team—all of this was feedback from CN server users.
Honestly, Chinese users are not as enthusiastic about drinking together; they might prefer sitting down with creators to discuss the game, sharing their thoughts and wanting to know what the creators think—they are more interested in the latter. So, we actually designed this event around user needs.
At every step, we communicated fully with Digital Extremes, introducing them to what Chinese users are like and what formats they prefer. Digital Extremes was also very receptive to suggestions, and they similarly felt that Chinese users might desire more of this face-to-face interaction.
This February, Lotus Mom visited, and we organized a small-scale meetup. She was very moved and thought this format was very good, so the February event served as a small "prototype."
We gradually helped them better understand the preferences and realities of Chinese users, ultimately combining everyone's experience to make this event a success. We are quite competitive, hoping that among all global events, this TennoVIP leaves the deepest impression on Digital Extremes, allowing them to fully feel the passion of CN server users.
We've observed TennoVIP events in other regions worldwide. For the launch in Xi'an, we were the first to redesign the logo specifically for the event, blending Terracotta Warriors with Warframes. Every detail was crafted with care, allowing both users and Digital Extremes to feel the mutual passion.
Regarding promotion in other Chinese cities, our commitment is firm. We were just discussing our next stop downstairs. Since the starting point for the first stop was set quite high, we need to carefully consider how to exceed the expectations of both Digital Extremes and players for the next location.
Q: What is the long-term operational plan for Warframe's Chinese server in the coming years?
Kiai:As mentioned earlier, we've made significant efforts in the past. Moving forward, our true goal is to connect users with Digital Extremes for co-creation. Players have shared many ideas, such as introducing multi-player raids and more China-themed premium Warframes. We aim to incorporate these valuable suggestions from Chinese users into future game updates, which is our direction for the future.
Our immediate priority is to successfully implement the Chang'e Warframe alongside them. We hope this will serve as a strong example, enhancing their future efforts in incorporating Eastern cultural elements.
Q: Taking content like Chang'e as an example, what is the overall localization strategy for such China-specific content? What role does Tencent play? Are you the requester, cultural translator, or co-creator?
Kiai:I think we fulfill all three roles, but we primarily see ourselves as a connector. Our philosophy aligns with Digital Extremes; we both aim to expand community culture and strongly encourage user co-creation, which is a crucial aspect.
However, given the significant differences between China's content ecosystem and overseas markets, we also act as cultural translators. This helps Digital Extremes better understand Chinese users and the local content landscape, allowing us to collaborate effectively. Ultimately, I hope Tencent's role will be that of a connector and bridge.
Q: Warframe has been operating for many years, and its deep systems and accumulated expansions create a high barrier to entry for new players. What strategic efforts has Tencent made to attract new users? Based on your observations, how has the profile of new Tenno on the Chinese server changed in recent years? If you could say one thing to players on the Chinese server, what would it be?
Kiai:We have been discussing the new player experience with Digital Extremes—how can we make the game less overwhelming for newcomers? After all, our content is vast. We've held numerous workshops this year to address this. While we can't reveal specific solutions yet, both parties are actively exploring innovative ways to improve the new player experience.
For now, our focus is on strengthening support content for new players, including mentorship initiatives within the community. Helping newcomers adapt to the game more quickly and effectively is a top priority.
Regarding the profile of new Tenno, it changes dynamically each year. There isn't a clear, consistent pattern in terms of age or background. However, one thing remains constant: everyone loves Warframe, enjoys its theme and shooter-action gameplay, and appreciates the Warframe designs.
Warframe attracts a large number of new users every year. Our persistence in campus tours, building a strong Chinese server community, and inviting Digital Extremes to China for exchanges is driven by the desire to help more new users join the Warframe family. Therefore, I don't believe the profile of new users has changed significantly; we continue to attract users with similar interests.
Finally, if I could say one thing to all Tenno—seeing so many player questions at the TennoVIP event downstairs, and discussing them with my team, I realize there's much more Tencent can do. We need to follow up more closely and delve deeper into these areas, helping Digital Extremes and Chinese Tenno bring their needs to fruition.
So, our message to them is simply: we will keep up the good work.