Dune: Awakening

There hadn't been anything new in terms of video game adaptations of Dune for a long time, but Denis Villeneuve's film adaptations breathed new life into the desert planet of Arrakis. It was only with Dune: Spice Wars (2022) that Shiro Games released a 4X RTS, but now Funcom, with the support of Nukklear and Yager, is inviting players to take part in a large-scale open-world action-survival massively multiplayer online game.

Survival in the desert was already a central theme in Funcom's Conan Exiles. Released in Early Access in 2017, the online multiplayer survival game was originally only meant to fund the next project, but instead became the biggest success in the company's history and unexpectedly turned into a service game. The next project from Norway's largest game company, wholly owned by Tencent, is also set in a desert, on the desert planet Dune or Arrakis. Dune: Awakening is an open-world multiplayer survival game in a persistent world with social hubs such as Arrakeen and Harko Village, server-wide politics and a cinematic storyline that is not typical of an MMO, although PvP is always optional.

But unlike Frank Herbert's novel and Denis Villeneuve's film adaptation, the game's scenario is different. The Fremen have vanished. Paul Atreides was never born. Lady Jessica obeyed the Bene Gesserit and gave birth to a girl. Duke Leto Atreides survived the attack on Arrakeen and is now in conflict with the Harkonnen over Arrakis and its precious spice.

Players are sent to Arrakis as prisoners to solve the mystery of the Fremen's disappearance. They rise from a nameless survivor to an agent of the Atreides or the Harkonnen. In this world, players fight to survive, find water, engage in combat, craft equipment, build shelter and explore the environment for more resources. Players will use ranged and melee weapons, unlocking new technologies and abilities, and can even drive vehicles or fly ornithopters at a later stage. It's possible to build anything from a temporary camp to an impenetrable fortress. And then there is the Deep Desert, which is reshaped each week by Coriolis storms. This is where players, guilds and the Great Houses battle for massive spice shipments to boost their finances and ambitions.

"Dune: Awakening is the most ambitious survival game ever made, set on the most dangerous planet in the universe, Arrakis. Whether a Dune fan or not, the vast world will immerse you in an epic experience that draws from both Frank Herbert's sci-fi masterpiece and Denis Villeneuve's blockbuster movies. Embark on a journey from scavenging and survival to controlling the planet itself." - Funcom

The open-world multiplayer survival game set on Arrakis will be released on Steam on 20 May 2025. This means that the game will be available just a few days after Doom: The Dark Ages (15 May). Nukklear from Hannover and Yager from Berlin were involved in the development of the game. Players can start by downloading the character creator from Steam and testing their hardware with the benchmark mode. Created characters can then be imported into Dune: Awakening at launch. Funcom will talk about the console versions in the future.

Dune: Awakening will not be released in Early Access. It's the full launch on PC. Although it is an MMO, there is no subscription model. The game will continue to add content and features through free updates. It follows a classic business model of optional DLCs. The Standard Edition costs €49.99. The Deluxe Edition (€69.99) and the Ultimate Edition (€89.99) give players a five-day head start and some unique items. A Season Pass is also available as part of the Deluxe and Ultimate Editions, unlocking four DLCs over time, the first of which is available at launch. The soundtrack (composer: Knut Avenstroup Haugen) is included in the Ultimate Edition only.

The head start for buyers of the €69.99 Deluxe Edition and the €89.99 Ultimate Edition began on 5 June 2025. Dune: Awakening launched with over 90,000 concurrent players (CCU), peaking at 117,087 on Sunday (8 June). This is the most successful launch of a Funcom game on Steam to date, surpassing the previous record set by Conan Exiles in February 2017 (Early Access: 53,402). User reviews also became more positive over time. On launch day, the cumulative user reviews were "Mixed" (also due to server issues), but over the weekend, this mood barometer then turned to "Very Positive" (88 percent of 12,426 user reviews are "positive").