Warframe's microtransactions are getting an overhaul, and it's a better deal for everybody

Microtransactions are, in many ways, a necessary evil. While developers of free online multiplayer games rely on them to keep the lights on, a lot of players simply wish that they weren’t there at all. While supporting a videogame is entirely your choice, the level of predatory MTXs feels like it’s consistently ramping up, becoming more invasive, more aggressive, and, most importantly, more expensive. Warframe, like any other game, has a premium currency (called Platinum) that you can either splash the cash on, or collect as you play. The latter part, in my opinion, makes it a lot more friendly than other videogame economies. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement, and that’s exactly what Digital Extremes is delivering.

While Warframe’s Platinum bundles operate like any other videogame (you have low-cost through to high-cost bundles largely priced similarly to items you’d be looking to buy), the 1,000, 2,100, and 4,300 bundles come with extra mods. You receive one, two, then three mods respectively, which can be applied to your Warframe to enhance them.

The issue here, however, is that mods drop relatively frequently during missions, and are often directly purchasable with in-game currency if you want a specific one. While getting more rares is always helpful, longtime players have already perfected their loadouts. The mods on offer in Platinum bundles – Animal Instinct, Armored Agility, and Seeking Fury – can also all be earned by completing various tiers of Nightmare missions, which isn’t exactly an easy task, but is certainly doable.

Starting Tuesday February 17, however, mods are being removed from Platinum bundles, with Digital Extremes noting that “as Warframe continues to evolve and grow, we felt that the mods became insignificant for Tenno over time.” Instead, it’ll simply add a bit more Platinum to each bundle, which it says will offer “more value,” and I can’t help but agree.

While the 75 Platinum bundle isn’t changing, the other tiers are. Their IRL cost remains the same, however, so you’ll still be paying $4.99 / £3.99, then $9.99 / £6.99, and so on. The new amounts are listed below:

• 170 becomes 175 (+5)
• 370 Platinum becomes 380 Platinum (+10)
• 1,000 Platinum becomes 1,025 Platinum (+25)
• 2,100 Platinum becomes 2,200 Platinum (+100)
• 3,210 Platinum becomes 3,450 Platinum (+240)
• 4,300 Platinum becomes 4,600 Platinum (+300)

To me, this makes a lot of sense. The people who are dropping $199.99 / £129.99 on the biggest in-store bundles are likely going to be either whales (no offence meant here) or longtime fans who probably already have the mods (or better ones) in the first instance. If anything, including some rarer mods for lower tier bundles would have been great for beginners, but given you could just keep buying smaller bundles and getting duplicates, their rarity would decrease exponentially.

Removing mods, then, is the best solution, and there’s more on top of that. If you log in between February 17 to Tuesday February 24, Digital Extremes will gift you a ‘buy one get one free’ voucher on Platinum purchases. So yes, if you’ve casually got $200 lying around and fancy getting another $200-worth of Plat for free, have at it – and maybe toss a coin to the writer that gave you the idea as a thanks.

So, from Tuesday February 17, Warframe’s overhauled Platinum bundles will replace the current ones, removing mods entirely. You have seven days (until Tuesday February 24) to log in and claim your voucher. There are also some changes to regional pricing (affecting Argentina, Indonesia, The Philippines, and Türkiye) that you can see here.

Overall, I think this is the right call. Given that Warframe’s microtransactions aren’t horribly priced anyway (~$30 for the absolutely gorgeous Heirloom skins is a great deal when you’re used to $250 League of Legends cosmetics) you’re simply getting more bang for your buck. Keeping the price the same while offering more feels like a rarity in videogames these days, but I hope more devs take notes from Digital Extremes.