 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 1993; 32 years ago (1993) |
| Headquarters | London, Ontario, Canada |
Number of employees | 300+[1] (2023) |
| Parent | Leyou |
| Divisions | Digital Extremes Toronto[2] |
| Website | digitalextremes |
Digital Extremes Ltd. is a Canadianvideo game developer founded in 1993 by James Schmalz. They are best known for creatingWarframe, a free-to-play cooperative online action game, and co-creatingEpic Games'Unreal series of games. Digital Extremes is headquartered inLondon, Ontario. In 2014, 61% of the company was sold to Chinese holding company Multi Dynamic, nowLeyou, 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.
Founder James Schmalz createdEpic Pinball, published by then shareware publisherEpic MegaGames. Bolstered from the success ofEpic 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'sUnreal franchise.[6]
Unreal is afirst-person shooter, released in 1998, and was followed up withUnreal Tournament in 1999, which received numerous industry awards.[7] Subsequent sequels in theUnreal franchise includeUnreal Championship,Unreal Tournament 2003, andUnreal Tournament 2004. TheUnreal series has sold more than 15 million units worldwide across Windows, Mac,PlayStation 2,Dreamcast,Xbox,PlayStation 3,Xbox 360, and other platforms.
According toScott Miller, the co-founder of the video game company3D Realms, Digital Extremes was willing to take over development of their much-delayed gameDuke 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]
Digital Extremes released the originalthird-person shooter,Dark Sector, in 2008 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows. It uses the proprietary Evolution Engine.
Digital Extremes worked with2K to develop the comic-book franchise video game sequel,The Darkness II, which met with positive reviews.[9][10][11][12] Digital Extremes developed thePlayStation 3 version ofBioShock,[13] as well as developed themultiplayer component of the sequel,BioShock 2, while simultaneously developing the multiplayer portion ofTHQ'sfirst-person shooterHomefront.[14]
Digital Extremes developed the game for the 2013Star Trek Into Darkness film, working withBandai Namco andParamount to developStar Trek, which was poorly received.[15]
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 asLeyou in 2015, and by June 2016, had purchased the remaining shares in Digital Extremes.[19][20]
In 2016, it was revealed that Digital Extremes' gameWarframe 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 byTencent, 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 theWarframe client.[22]
In October 2023, James Schmalz stepped down as CEO, with formerWarframe 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 withAirship Syndicate, returningWayfinder to their control.[24]
Digital Extremes started development ofWarframe, afree-to-play title, in 2000. Digital Extremes launchedWarframe on PC in March 2013, PlayStation 4 in November, and on Xbox One in September 2014. The company releasedWarframe 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), "Angels of the Zariman" (April 2022), "The Duviri Paradox" (April 2023), and "Warframe 1999" (December 2024).
Digital Extremes worked with developern-Space to develop the fantasyrole-playing video game,Sword Coast Legends, set within theDungeons & Dragons franchise.[25]
Digital Extremes developedThe Amazing Eternals, a team-basedmultiplayeronlinefirst-person shootervideo game. The game was announced and entered closed alpha on May 23, 2017, under the development codename "Keystone".[26] Closed beta began three months later on August 29.[27] By October, development was "paused", according to a forum post by a staff member.[28][29] The cancellation of the project and Digital Extremes' decision to refocus on its more successful titleWarframe was later attributed in part the commercial failure ofLawBreakers and the lack of interest inThe Amazing Eternals closed beta.[30]
The team worked with Madison, Wisconsin-based developerHuman Head Studios to publishSurvived By, afree-to-playbullet-hellMMO with crafting and role-playing elements.Survived By was shut down as of April 2019.[31]
During TennoCon 2022, Digital Extremes announcedSoulframe, an upcomingfantasyMMORPG. It also said that it would be publishing amassively multiplayer online game fromAirship Syndicate,Wayfinder,[32] but afterWayfinder's release in August 2023, Digital Extremes cut their external games division, leavingWayfinder under Airship Syndicate's control.[33]
Evolution is Digital Extremes' proprietary game engine.[34] The engine made its debut withDark Sector and was again utilized inThe Darkness II.[35] 2013'sStar Trek featured use of the Evolution engine. It is currently utilised inWarframe and the upcomingSoulframe.
Since the launch ofWarframe, its expansion and popularity has grown, resulting in multiple awards. In late 2017,Warframe won the Steam Labor of Love award,[36] 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 toOverwatch andFortnite, respectively.[37]
In early 2018,Warframe won the People's VoiceWebby Award for Best Action Game,[38] andProMax's Best Marketing Campaign of the Year Award.[39] In March 2018,Noclip published the video documentary on the making ofWarframe. The two-part feature tells the story of howWarframe succeeded as an independently developed and published game that changed the course of Digital Extremes.[40][41]
Digital Extremes' employment environment has been recognized as one of Canada's Top Employers for 2010, 2011, 2012[42] and through to 2018.[43] Additionally, the company has been recognized as one of Canada's top employers for Young People.[44] In 2010 and 2011, the Financial Post named Digital Extremes one of the 10 best companies to work for in Canada.[45]
On the provincial level, Digital Extremes received the Ontario Small Business Award in 2010.[46] Digital Extremes was also presented with the Large Business of the Year award in 2011 from the London Chamber of Commerce.[47] Digital Extremes was also awarded the Excellence in Human Resources award from The London Chamber of Commerce in early 2012.[48] Also, in 2025, Digital Extremes was awarded the Corporate Icon Award from London Chamber of Commerce.[49]
| Year | Title | Platform(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Solar Winds | MS-DOS |
| 1993 | Epic Pinball | MS-DOS |
| 1993 | Silverball | MS-DOS |
| 1995 | Extreme Pinball | MS-DOS,PlayStation |
| 1998 | Unreal | Windows,Mac OS |
| 1999 | Unreal Tournament | Windows,Mac OS,Linux,PlayStation 2,Dreamcast |
| 2001 | Adventure Pinball: Forgotten Island | Windows |
| 2002 | Unreal Championship | Xbox |
| 2002 | Unreal Tournament 2003 | Windows,Mac OS,Linux |
| 2004 | Unreal Tournament 2004 | Windows,Mac OS,Linux |
| 2005 | Pariah | Windows,Xbox |
| 2006 | Warpath | Windows,Xbox |
| 2008 | Dark Sector | Windows,Xbox 360,PlayStation 3 |
| 2008 | BioShock(PS3 port) | PlayStation 3 |
| 2010 | BioShock 2(multiplayer) | Windows,Mac OS,Xbox 360,PlayStation 3 |
| 2011 | Homefront(multiplayer) | Windows,Xbox 360,PlayStation 3 |
| 2012 | The Darkness II | Windows,Mac OS,Xbox 360,PlayStation 3 |
| 2013 | Warframe | Windows,Xbox One,Xbox Series X/S,PlayStation 4,PlayStation 5,Nintendo Switch,iOS |
| 2013 | Star Trek | Windows,Xbox 360,PlayStation 3 |
| 2015 | Sword Coast Legends | Windows,Mac OS,Linux,Xbox One,PlayStation 4 |
| Canceled | The Amazing Eternals | Windows |
| 2018 | Survived By(published) | Windows |
| TBA | Soulframe | Windows |
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)| International | |
|---|---|
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| Other | |
