Dune: Awakening News

Dune Awakening's spice is in full flow, and its biggest bug is its best feature

Sticking a media playtest for a Dune game in the frigid depths of a Norwegian January is peak comedic irony. Yet there I was, layered up, exploring the unforgiving Arrakean desert from Oslo's former multiplex-turned-gaming hub, Eldorado, having been invited by developer Funcom. While the venue may serve a different purpose nowadays, I still witnessed moments of absolute cinema during my six-hour Dune Awakening preview as I wrestled with raiders, legged it from sandworms, and familiarized myself with the laws of the desert. God made Arrakis to test the faithful, and Funcom's making Dune Awakening to test the gamers.

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The Dune Awakening team had "a bunch of constraints" placed on what they could show by working with Hollywood

Dune Awakening creative director Joel Bylos revealed during a press Q&A earlier this month that "a bunch of constraints" were put in place for the team as part of its collaboration with Hollywood. This, it turns out, was one of the core reasons why the game takes place in an alternate history.

Faction imbalance is a problem as old as MMOs themselves, one must only look at World of Warcraft servers being dominated by either the Alliance or Horde as an example of how players love flocking to the faction leading the pack. Dune Awakening is no different, though according to creative director Joel Bylos, the team has a solution in the works to combat it: a third faction.

It's a tough genre, the survival game. Ever since The Forest and Rust exploded in popularity, dozens of would-be rivals have come along, and Steam is now full of games where you can scavenge, craft, and hunt. The Long Dark is getting a sequel. Project Zomboid has been surging lately. But if there's one upcoming survival sim with the pedigree to outshine its competitors then it's Dune Awakening. A kind of alternate-history take on Frank Herbert's sci-fi odyssey, we still don't know precisely when Dune Awakening is coming out - but it's already got thousands of players on PC.

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Fully Immerse Yourself on Arrakis with NVIDIA DLSS 4 and Razer!

Greetings Sleepers,

One of our goals in Dune: Awakening is to immerse you on Arrakis unlike ever before. To let you feel the sandworms shift beneath you; the Coriolis Storms tear at your skin; and the spice sing in your veins.

We’re delighted to announce that Dune: Awakening will be one of the first games to feature NVIDIA’s DLSS 4 technology with Multi Frame Generation, enhancing Dune: Awakening’s most majestic views and exciting moments. Witness colossal sandworms break the surface of the dunes, dynamically pushing sand aside and spewing it into the air. Experience every frame of your last moments before it consumes you whole, or you barely escape. Take a look at the comparison video:

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To blur the lines between Arrakis and reality further, Dune: Awakening will also feature Razer’s next-gen Chroma and Haptics integration, providing synced lighting and intelligent haptic feedback for the most immersive experience possible. Plunge your entire room into the Arrakis sunset as you soar across golden dunes in your ornithopter, thanks to Razer’s recently announced next-gen Chroma integration.

Additionally, with Razer’s Freyja Gaming Cushion’s full dynamic range, you will feel the shudder of your shield as it repels an enemy dart from behind, or your ornithopter cockpit hum to life around you.

We are thrilled to say that NVIDIA and Razer’s state-of-the-art technology elevates the first open-world experience of Arrakis to new heights, and we can’t wait for you to experience it.

In Early 2025, rise from a nameless survivor to a hero of House Harkonnen or House Atreides.