40,000 people are watching a Warframe developer as he races to finish its biggest update ever [Updated]

Update: The stream is now over and Warframe: Fortuna has been released. You can go download it now, and please look forward to our coverage and guides that we'll have coming over the weekend. If you want to watch the stream, you can do so here.

Original story: Though a release date was never specified, Warframe's next open-world expansion, Fortuna, will be available in just a few hours. Right now, developer Digital Extremes is racing to fix the last few bugs before shipping the update so that players can finally download it and dig in. You can watch this all happening live on Twitch, as game director Steve Sinclair is streaming live from his desk. Over 40,000 viewers are tuned in, eagerly awaiting the news that Fortuna is finally ready. In the meantime, Sinclair is giving viewers a precious insight into what's behind such a massive release.

Like the Plains of Eidolon update that released back in 2017, Fortuna adds a massive new open world to explore with up to three other friends. Instead of the brown pastures of Earth, though, players will be heading to the frozen wasteland of a terraformed Venus.

Tom checked out the update and the new blood-thirsty Garuda warframe last week and had a hoot using his K-drive hoverboard to pull off cool tricks while skating around the environment. That's just the tip of the terraformed iceberg too, as Fortuna also adds animal tracking and conservation, a new slot of weapons to build from scratch, and expanded fishing and mining. It looks beefy, so hopefully Fortuna lives up to expectations. Developer Digital Extremes has already said that they've learned a lot of lessons from the Plains of Eidolon and that Fortuna won't have the same super-intensive economy.

Warframe: Fortuna will be out in just a few minutes. We'll update this post when it is live.