Dune: Awakening, an online multiplayer survival game developed by Funcom, had its big moment Thursday night at The Game Awards. A new trailer was revealed, showing off a tone and timbre very much akin to Dennis Villeneuve’s motion picture, Dune. Gameplay seems to be a mixture of Ark: Survival Evolved and Planetside, of all things, with intimate moments of desperation contrasting against huge, pitched battles in the sand.
The trailer, built with footage from what developers call an early alpha version of the game, displays an art style is reminiscent of — but not 100% the same as — Villeneuve’s movie. The description attached to the YouTube video (embedded above) emphasizes the game’s survival aspects, noting that players will go from “searching for water and building shelters against storms to controlling the flow of spice in the top echelons of Arrakis.” The trailer includes scenes of the player character wandering out of the desert wearing a stillsuit, as well as combined arms ground combat featuring tanks and ornithopters.
Dune: Awakening was revealed in August at Gamescom 2022, and it’s listed for PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. No release window has been given, but developers are accepting sign-ups for the beta now.
