Dune: Awakening went from YouTube Shorts to a big Gamescom splash with the reveal of a 2025 launch on PC. We’re now getting a bit more detail about the survival MMO thanks to a WCCFTech interview with Chief Product Officer Scott Junior, who discusses several general points of interest for players to make note of.
- Dune: Awakening will go right into launch – no early access is planned.
- Crossplay between PC and eventual console releases hasn’t been tied down.
- Characters will get access to three active abilities on top of attack, parry, dodge, and sprint abilities. These can be mixed and matched regardless of class.
- On the subject of classes and ability customization, Junior notes that “there are abilities that are more damaging and others that are more supportive” but there won’t be dedicated roles.
- Group sizes are maximum of four, though there are moments when 16 players (four groups of four) can come together to achieve things like larger spice mining operations. “I don’t think we have come out and set the exact term on that yet,” Junior notes.
- Survival is still the name of the game despite the Gamescom demo being more action-oriented. Junior talks about different levels of “pressure” as players progress, with water acquisition being the first and later requirements like spice gathering adding on to the things players will need to survive.
- The Landsraad system is what will drive most PvP in the game, though Junior notes that there are systems that will prevent one guild from dominating huge swaths of territory and ways for smaller guilds or solo players to disengage from a fight they don’t want to take on.
- PvE gameplay is once more focused almost entirely on the underground Eco Labs, which will offer unique loot for each one that can’t be gained in any other way.
- The beta testing pool is planning to slowly expand “over the next couple of months.” No confirmation of whether there will be an open beta before release.
Finally of note, there’s word from another interview provided by Videogamer with Creative Director Joel Bylos that confirms private servers will not be a feature at launch but could come to the game at a later time. “We could do a thing where we rent out servers, so [players] can have their own private version,” reads part of the piece. “In terms of the game balance, and how the end-game plays out, we probably wouldn’t allow people the modifications in Conan Exiles.”
