Game Release

Release Date

Dune Awakening will be released to PC Early 2025 with a Playstation and Xbox release pending.

Release platforms

Dune: Awakening will release on PC, Xbox X|S and PlayStation 5

Though Dune: Awakening will be releasing on consoles, the state of crossplay on release is currently unknown for release.

One of the reasons mentioned for a delayed console realase is technical limitations of the Xbox S, and other platform restrictions

Monetization

The game will be Buy-To-Play (have an upfront cost) and have a Season system, which will introduce further updates and content

Private Servers

The Server Architecture of the game is much more complex than a standard single-server multiplayer game, but Funcom are looking into the possibility

of providing private instances of Hagga Basin which players could rent directly from the company, so people can play with their friends.

There are no plans on releasing dedicated server software itself, due to the complexity of hosting and to help reduce the likihood of cheaters finding exploits in server code

System Requirements

For PC, the system requirements have not been confirmed, as there is still a lot of optimization needed before the development team can make an accurate assessment.

However, in the unoptimized beta state, some devs have been able to run the game on an Nvidia Geforce 1070Ti on very low settings and players have already been able to utilize DLSS, improving their FPS.

Furthermore, the game is currently using Unreal Engine 5.2, with Nanite and Lumen so it's potentially helpful to look at other games of similar graphical fidelity also using that engine with those features, such as Remnant II, Lords of the Fallen and S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 to get a sense of what they might be.

Timeline of Dune: Awakening

Dune awakening will roughly follow the books, however it will take place in an alternate timeline. However, Funcom has closely worked with both Legendary Pictures (Production Company of Dune(2021) and Dune: Part Two(2024)) and the Herbert family.

There is a "single point in time that starts a landslide of events" that occurs before the start of the first book - The birth of Ariste Atreides instead of Paul Atreides, causing a divergence to what is seen in the first book written by Frank(1965), refer to Alternate Timeline.

Despite this divergence, the player will be able to meet both Duke Leto Atreides, and 'Beast' Rabban, representing the Atreides and Harkonnen houses respectively.

PvP Mechanics:

• The main PvP area in Dune: Awakening will be the Deep Desert, a free for all area where combat and therefore friendly fire will be enabled.
• This map is completely seamless(without loading screens) and is nine times the size of Funcom's previous game Conan Exiles.
• The Deep Desert's raw map size is over 355miles squared or exactly 576km

• There will be areas outside of the Deep Desert for PvP.
• Refer to Death Mechanics for how dying/respawning will work.

Features or things one might expect that will not be present:

• Sandworm riding
  • Sandworm riding will not be present but it seems Funcom would like to add it post release

• Sandwalking
  • Sandwalking was attempted but did not fit the game, however, Funcom "might come back to it"

• Fremen(to an extent, read below)
  • The player will not play as a Fremen, the player is an outworlder who crashes on Arrakis as a prisoner.
  • None of the mentioned 'family' choices are Fremen (Character Creation)
  • The Fremen will exist, put sparsely and later into the game.
  • The remnants of the Fremen will be discoverable, the player will be able to find them.
  • The 'extermination' of the Fremen leaves a power vacuum to be filled.

• Base raiding
  • While Dune: Awakening will feature player bases(See: Building), the aim for PvP combat is for players to be steered away from each other's bases and towards battling over resources. However, if a player decides not to keep their shield maintained, they are left vulnerable to the environment and other players depending on where their base is situated.

References

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