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Dune: Awakening open world survival MMO revealed at Gamescom

Prepare to step into the world of Dune for a new survival MMO.

Ozzie Mejia

August 23, 2022 11:13 AM

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Tuesday's Gamescom Opening Night Live presentation continued with the latest effort from Funcom and Level Infinite. This new title will take players straight into the world of Dune. More specifically, it will put players in the middle of an all-new open world survival MMO. If the announcement trailer is to be believed, there will be plenty of things on the sandy worlds of Dune ready to kill you.

Dune: Awakening is set on the sandy planet of Arrakis. According to the issued press release, Funcom will take inspiration from both the classic Frank Herbert novel and the Denis Villeneuve movie that released last year. The publisher will look to combine elements of survival games (like its own Conan Exiles) with massive open world MMOs (like its own Age of Conan) to create something wholly unique and engaging. Dune fans should expect to see some familiar locales, as well as some harrowing scenarios, including ones that require them to move fast before the coriolis storms start up. Combat will take place across the ground, through iconic vehicles, and even skyward against adversaries that range from rival factions to giant sandworms.

Interestingly, this will be Funcom's second foray into the world of Dune. A 4X strategy game, Dune: Spice Wars, is currently available through Steam Early Access. So far, it's pretty darn good.

There's no exact release window for Dune: Awakening, nor is there a price point. Whether there's a cost of entry or whether it goes free-to-play like Age of Conan eventually did remains to be seen. Dune: Awakening is coming soon to PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S with sign-ups for the beta available now on the Dune Games website.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?