Published Oct 31, 2026, 10:58 AM EDT

Tomas Franzese is the Weekend News Editor at Polygon, following and reporting on the latest goings-on in the gaming and entertainment spaces. During the week, you can find him working on Remastered, his newsletter about video game history and retro gaming, or contributing to GameSpot and other publications. Previously, Tomas was the Gaming Segment Lead at XDA and a Staff Writer at Digital Trends.

Warframe will leave the Origin System and head to Tau before the end of the year

Tau Image: Digital Extremes

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Before the end of the year, Warframe will get a whole lot bigger. The Warframe: Tau expansion will be released for free in December and adds its namesake star system to the live service shooter alongside a lot of other new content.

What to expect from Warframe: Tau

Digital Extremes finally confirmed the Dec. 2026 release window for Warframe: Tau during Devstream 198 on Oct. 30. That stream also showed more of the expansion, which we first got a glimpse of at TennoCon earlier this year. While almost all of Warframe has taken place in the Origin System for the past thirteen years, this expansion finally adds a new star system that's been referenced within the game's lore for some time.

The expansion adds a new single-player chapter and introduces players to the game's 67th playable Warframe. He's named Brysko, voiced by Matt Mercer, and inspired by noir detective characters. Players can earn him for free through gameplay, but they can also instantly buy and unlock Brysko in the Warframe Market.

Once players wrap up the new story chapter, they'll be able to explore and complete missions in two Tau system locations, Perita and Fornax. A dedicated Tau System Star Chart will serve as the hub for all this new content. New cosmetics for Koumei and Nezha are also in the works, as is plenty of future content meant to flesh out what's available to players in Tau.

While the more imminent updates for Warframe will focus primarily on Tau, Digital Extremes Community Director Megan Everett stressed in a press release that the developers aren't abandoning the Origin Systems. "To all our players, new and returning, the Origin System is not being left behind," Everett explained. "While we focus right now on Tau, we have so many stories to tell, and now just have more places to share them.”

Warframe: Tau launches across all platforms that the sci-fi shooter is available on in December. It'll be a busy end of the year for Digital Extremes, as we recently learned that Soulframe Open Preludes will open up access to everyone on Nov. 6.