Soulframe dev says launching in 2025 is now an 'aspirational goal', but you can play the fantasy RPG's pre-alpha right now if you're quick

Upcoming fantasy action RPG Soulframe was slated to release later this year, but developer Digital Extremes is no longer certain whether Warframe's spell-slinging cousin will launch in 2025. Counterintuitively, though, you can play the game right now, with Digital Extremes opening up access to the pre-alpha (loftily dubbed "Preludes") until the end of this weekend.

The situation was explained to Eurogamer by Soulframe's creative director, Geoff Crookes, and community manager Sarah Asselin. When asked if Soulframe was still on track for a 2025 launch, Crookes' response was uncertain. "I'm going to be flakey here and say we have ambitions," he explained. "We're going to judge where we are in the fall. We have ambitions to release it as soon as we can!"

Asselin, meanwhile, described the fall release window as an "aspirational goal" adding "We're looking at where we're at by the end of the year, but we want to feel confident that we've built Soulframe out to the point where it feels good to do so, for the players and the developers."

Given we're already well into July, this sounds to me like Digital Extremes is seeding the ground for a delay into next year. But if you're desperate to see what the developer has been working on all this time (Soulframe was announced back in 2022) you still have a chance.

As part of this year's Tennocon (Warframe's annual community event), Digital Extremes announced it is opening up the game's alpha to any players who sign up during the event. Since Tennocon runs through this weekend, that means time is pretty tight. But you can still sign up for the alpha via the Soulframe website, by creating an account and then downloading the game to play its most recent version.

In his chat with Eurogamer, Crookes explained that the reason for this is because Digital Extremes had underestimated just how many people are waiting to play: "We didn't realise the queue was so big when we started to let people in, a lot of the people who were immediate signups kind of got left behind. Some people, out of frustration, didn't check their emails. So we thought let's be aggressive and give people an opportunity."

If you haven't been following Soulframe and are pondering whether to check it out, Digital Extremes also released a new trailer during Tennocon, which you can view above. Showing off the game's reworked combat system and a showdown against a three-headed bear, it looks like enjoyably flashy, if somewhat familiar fantasy fare.