Fear is the mind-killer in the first trailer for the upcoming video game Dune: Awakening.
The upcoming game is set in the Dune universe and it is being developed by Funcom, the team behind the multiplayer survival game Conan Exiles, which took place in the world of Conan the Barbarian. The trailer for Dune: Awakening was shown at Gamescom’s Opening Night Live, which is hosted by Geoff Keighley, the host of The Game Awards. The trailer, which you can see below, was tweeted by Funcom’s Twitter account.
Not much is known about the game including its release date. We do know that the game will be an open-world survival massively multiplayer online game, where you will presumably explore and survive in the deserts of Arrakis. You can also sign up for the game’s beta here, and wishlist the game on Steam. Funcom as mentioned previously worked on Conan Exiles, but they have worked on multiplayer games for over 20 years. They were responsible for Age of Conan and Anarchy Online.
Whether or not Dune: Awakening will have any crossover with the Dune film or its planned sequel is yet to be seen. But the trailer did have a figure who looked like Paul Atreides uttering his classic catchphrase, “fear is the mind-killer,” so maybe he will be a playable or non-playable character in the game. Either way, the figure jumped on a sandworm at the end of the trailer, which could be a possible traversal method in Dune: Awakening.
This would not be the first – and probably not the last – time that Dune has entered the video game world, as there have been multiple Dune games in the past, and one is even releasing in 2023. The 2023 game is titled Dune: Spice Wars and unlike Dune: Awakening it is a real-time strategy game. Aside from full games, Paul Atreides joined the popular Battle Royale video game Fortnite as a skin based on Timothée Chalamet’s portrayal of him in the 2021 film by Denis Villeneuve.
Based on their previous work with Conan Exiles, Dune: Awakening seems promising but it will not be coming out this year. Because you can sign up for the game’s beta and wishlist it, it does not seem like the release of Dune: Awakening is that far off, and it will probably release sometime in 2023 or 2024. But we will ultimately have to wait for the official word on when the game will be released.