Update 11/02/2025: Digital Extremes has gotten back to me with the numbers on this year’s TennoCon attendees. In total, the event sold through 3,000 tickets in about 30 minutes, which seems pretty believable to me. If you missed out, DE says “prospective attendees who were able to join [the] virtual queue will have tickets for TennoCon 2025 made available for purchase as we work through a modest number of refunds and transaction issues.”
Original story: I have a confession: I think I might like Warframe. Although in general I think of myself as a strict adherent to the singleplayer philosophy of Saint Moses of Scetis—to “sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything”—when it comes to videogames, I admit that’s been chipped away over the last couple of years. I have no idea what’s happening, every mission ends with me accruing about 37 different currencies, and my little guy looks like a band leader found themselves unexpectedly committed to a life of armed jihad. I think I love it?
Lots of other people seem to love it too, which must be why there have been nine TennoCons so far: events where Warframe fans and devs pile into a venue to mix, mingle, give updates, reveal things like last year’s customisable Soulframe mum announcement and collectively try to figure out what the hell Warframe is about, probably.
This year I reckon they’ll crack it. Tickets for 2025’s TennoCon—held as ever in London, Ontario—went on sale at about 11 am PST / 2 pm EST / 7 pm GMT last Friday, per an announcement from Digital Extremes on Bluesky. Per a subsequent announcement, they were completely sold out 35 minutes later. That means all the $50 General Admission tickets, the $150 VIP tickets, and even the two (count ’em: two) $1,000 Legendary tickets.
Which, unless there were only like five other tickets available to the world’s most dedicated Warframists, is pretty impressive. And pretty disappointing if you’re a fan who wasn’t able to beat the rush. On social media, more than a few fans are attributing the quick sell-through to scalpers.
“Very disappointed that you’re not looking into the clearly scalped tickets,” remarked one upset player on X, The Everything App. “Can we please get an official confirmation if there are bot-claimed tickets or not?” begged another, “This is the first year I ever had the slightest chance to attend this event, it feels unfair that so many people missed their chances due to poor checkout experience.” Others are just sad: “I’m never going to Tennocon then huh, awesome.”
For its part, though, Digital Extremes seems adamant that the quick sales are just down to enthusiasm: “As we provide advance notice of ticket availability, this can result in a longer queue than the number of tickets.” The studio also says anyone trying to scalp will be stymied at the door. “Please know that tickets are nontransferable and we diligently validate tickets at every TennoCon!”
Which, presuming the bit about validating tickets is true, does suggest to me that at least most of the ticket sales were legit. If they weren’t, you’ve gotta think Digital Extremes would be a bit panicky about an upcoming and very empty TennoCon, which it seems not to be.
And if, like me, you aren’t attending, you can always join the virtual event. I’m hoping for custom uncles, personally.