As Dune Part II is generating significant buzz and appears poised for a strong box office performance, Funcom has chosen this moment to announce updates on its video game, the highly anticipated Dune Awakening. Announced nearly two years ago, this open-world MMO represents the most ambitious project yet from the Norwegian studio. Following their engagement with Frank Herbert’s work, Funcom cannot afford any missteps, particularly given Denis Villeneuve’s films, which are establishing new benchmarks in cinematic and pop culture science fiction. Visually, the studio appears well-equipped to make a strong impression, thanks to high-quality rendering facilitated by Unreal Engine 5.
In the various videos that have been released, viewers can see the planet Arrakis and different houses vying for control of the spice. The developers also noted that this is a third-person perspective survival game with an MMO component, which should enable real-time evolution of the game, given that the studio has experience in the genre, having created Age of Conan and Conan Exiles. As expected in a survival game, crafting and resource gathering are emphasized, but it has also been demonstrated that vehicle usage is crucial. This is not surprising considering that navigating Arrakis will require time and caution due to the constant threat of sandworms.
No release date has been announced yet, but Dune Awakening will be available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.
