Everything we know so far about Dune Awakening and its upcoming beta
Want to learn more about Dune: Awakening ahead of its release?Funcom’s announcement of a brand new upcomingMMORPGset in the Dune universe has predictably turned a lot of heads. Who here isn’t a fan of watching a colossal sandworm swallowing up a spice harvester whole? And who doesn’t want to be there on the ground watching it happen?
That’s what Funcom promise withDune: Awakening: a massive open-worldsurvivalMMO with a focus on keeping yourself alive and watered in the dunes of Arrakis, avoiding attacks from sandworms and rival factions, and building your power bit by bit in the most hostile planet ever colonised.
Below we’ll walk you through everything we know so far about Dune: Awakening, from its expected release date to details on gameplay, combat, story, and how to sign up for the upcoming beta.
In this guide:
Dune Awakening release date speculation
It’s worth remembering that this is all speculation, and that until an official release date is given by the devs, we won’t be able to do any better than some educated guessing on when Dune: Awakening will come out. Bookmark this page for all the latest info as it arrives!
There will be a Dune: Awakening beta, andyou can sign up right nowby heading to theDune: Awakening websiteand clicking on “Beta Signup” in the top-right of the browser page.
According to the website, signing up to the beta will also “register your interest in joining future beta tests” - so it’s likely we’ll see several betas, and multiple opportunities to play Dune: Awakening before it actually releases.
Dune: Awakening will launch on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|Swhen it releases. The game is currently available for wishlisting onSteam.
So far we have no information on whether or not Dune: Awakening will have crossplay or cross-save functionality, but hopefully Funcom will reveal this information later on down the line.
Dune: Awakening combines the MMORPG genre with the survival and crafting genre, all set in a massive open world filled with the myriad dangers of Arrakis: desert heat, lack of water, and of course, attacks from the iconic sandworms that prowl the dunes. Several of these scenes can be seen in the game’s latest trailer, which is aptly dubbed the Survive Arrakis trailer.
According to anexclusive video interview with PCGamer, the game begins with the player stranded in the middle of the desert with nothing but a knife made from scrap metal, and your first step is to ensure your survival by obtaining water from the nearby enemy camps at the point of your newly crafted blade.
The core gameplay loop of Dune: Awakening is built upon five “pillars”:
After ensuring your own survival, Dune: Awakening’s systems will then encourage you to start thinking long-term, growing your standing on Arrakis by starting guilds, harvesting and selling spice from giant geyser-esque spice blows, running fleets of vehicles, engaging in politics with the major houses, and trying to hang onto the power you’ve generated over the course of your character’s story.
Storms and sandworm attacks are very common on Arrakis, so your survival depends on finding shelter in the form of hard rock, where the sandworms can’t burrow. This is where you can start to build your own base piece by piece out of sections and modules of various styles and materials.
But no matter how well you establish yourself and your base on solid ground, you’ll still need to venture out into the desert in order to obtain schematics that you can use to craft items and equipment. Bylos explained inanother PCGamer interviewthat progression is less about working your way through a tech tree, and more about exploring the desert to find these schematics and other secrets.
The Coriolis storm system changes the desert with every storm. Certain points of interest may be covered by sand and become lost, while the storm may uncover other long-untouched areas. Basically it’s a clever way for the devs to keep changing the map of Dune: Awakening at regular intervals, encouraging exploration of the desert. The desert also looks to be a vast, treacherous place full of infinite dangers, but luckily there will be methods to get around quickly, including sandbikes for zippy desert traversal.
As you’d expect from a game set in the Dune universe, spice is key to everything. It’s the most valuable substance in the universe and can be used for a variety of purposes. You can choose to simply sell it and gain fame and power through the market; or you can consume spice to upgrade your character and unlock new skills and abilities.
However, Dune: Awakening is attempting to make things more interesting by adding a flipside to this upgrade system. If you consume enough spice then you’ll become addicted to it, which forces you to keep consuming spice regularly in order to avoid certain negative effects, such as reduced maximum health.
Combat in Dune: Awakening looks to be a fairly involved affair. Funcom’s “Combined Arms” system looks to seamlessly integrate different types of combat: there are various land and air vehicles (including everyone’s favourite ornithopters) that can be piloted and used to attack others; or you can stay on foot and make use of a variety of melee or ranged weapons. Familiar, over-the-shoulder scuffles with lasguns - one of the standard weapons used on Arrakis - can be seen in the Survive Arrakis trailer, as well as more robust vehicular combat interactions.
There are also special abilities that you can gain through the Great Houses, the most well-known of which is the Bene Gesserit school which gives you access to the ability to influence others through use of The Voice, as well as various other heightened abilities.
You’ll have to think not only about the best kind of weaponry or machinery you need to win the fight, but also how likely you are to attract the attention of a sandworm. If your fight with another guild is interrupted by a gigantic sandworm attack, then everyone present is in big trouble.
Dune: Awakening puts players in the role of person referred to as “Sleeper” who wakes amid the deserts of Arrakis, and must fight to survive on the most dangerous planet in the universe. As players survive and thrive, they’ll come into contact with various characters - some of whom will befamiliar faces from the books and films.
We don’t know much more about the Dune: Awakening story at this time, but we do know that the story takes place in an “alternate history” which does not fit with the story of the books or films. In aninterview with PCGamer, Creative Director Joel Bylos told them the following:
This gives Funcom the freedom to play around quite a bit with the source material. We may, for example, get to rub shoulders with key characters like Paul Atreides and the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen without having to massage events such that they fit with the current canon. From the PCGamer interview, we know that there are notably changes from the source material, including the vital fact that Paul’s father, Duke Leto Atreides, remains alive in thie alternate telling, which is not the case in the original Dune canon. It remains to be seen what other linchpin events have altered the timeline for Dune: Awakening, however.
We do know that there seems to be some separation between the ecology of Dune in the film and the game. In a developer update blog regarding theArt of Arrakis, Tech Art Director Richard Cawte writes that “the Dune in the movie shows no natural vegetation whatsoever, which is not the case for our Dune.”
One of these three games turned out to beDune: Spice Wars, an excellent strategy game developed by Shiro Games (creators ofNorthgard) and published by Funcom. The game is currently out in early access - but just to be clear, aside from the source material there’s no link between Spice Wars and Dune: Awakening, and you don’t need to have played either one in order to enjoy the other.
With the release of the Survive Arrakis trailer, Funcom also revealed behind-the-scene footage, showcasing developer interviews on the inspirations and goals behind Dune: Awakening. The teammembers interviewed in the footage all speak on their efforts to develop a survival adventure that does something unique with the Dune setting, while also acknowledging the blueprint laid by the original Frank Herbert novels and the film series.
Otherwise, Funcom have been marketing Dune: Awakening with a series of micro-trailers called “Shigawire Reels” - 30-40 second videos which combine some stunning concept artwork for the game with tidbits of lore. The first Shigawire Reel is shown below, and you can also view thewhole playliston YouTube.
Here’s a gallery and writeup of all the sections of lore that have been released so far as part of Dune: Awakening’s Shigawire Reel trailers:
That’s everything we know so far about Dune: Awakening, but keep an eye out for updates to this page as we learn more information about Funcom’s ambitious upcoming MMO.
