Dune: Awakening was first announced back in 2022, and it's been a long, long wait to find out what this game – billed as an open-world survival MMO – actually looks like. "It's kind of funny, because we originally thought we'd be out before the first movie," creative director Joel Bylos jokes at a press event. But now, Funcom is finally ready to offer a few drops of vital refreshment to thirsting fans, and the scope of Awakening is nothing if not ambitious.
"At Funcom, I feel like we take risks as a company," Bylos says. "We do things that other people aren't willing to do. We're not corporate enough or large enough to be trying to make very streamlined games that come out every single year." Bylos highlights the studio's development of instancing for Anarchy Online, real-time combat for Age of Conan, and the ARG that helped tell the story of The Secret World. And, of course, "Conan Exiles had that slider that everyone knows about."
