Fellow Fremen, House Atreides, or whoever you associate with in the Frank Herbert universe, prepare for Dune: Awakening, as it brings the fans a large-scale Beta, beginning May 9, 2025, featuring the first 20 hours of the story. It’s set for release by Funcom, developers of Conan Exiles, which is developing the video game for Windows, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, although the latter two will be coming at a later date. Regarding the open beta, the developers shared it all in their recent press release. It reads,
From May 9 until May 12, the largest Beta yet will take place, with a huge number of new players joining compared to previous closed Betas. Players can get a taste of both spice and story in the large-scale Beta weekend, featuring the first 20 hours of the game and most of Act 1 of the story. Unlike previous Betas, this one has no NDA, meaning all information is open to share, and the game can be streamed for all to see.
There’s also a global LAN party broadcast on May 10, 2025, streamed from London and PAX East, where Funcom will give away thousands of Beta keys. Though this gives the players 20 hours worth of gameplay, it’s clear this is only Act 1, so there’s a lot to be uncovered in the spice-filled sands of Arrakis.
The Sleeper Must Be Awakened in Dune: Awakening
“The sleeper must awaken!”. Throughout time, this wisdom by Duke Leto Atreides has lived through whoever has traversed through the sands of Arrakis, and this is where their journey shall begin in Duke: Awakening. Act 1 will begin with this mandate: find the Fremen. Wake the sleeper. Courtesy of the Reverend Mother, who’s already held the lethal Gom Jabbar at the player’s neck. All of it is in the press release.
With Dune: Awakening giving almost full control to the players, allowing them to choose the faction they align with, how they approach the game, create alliances and destroy them in the same day, and so much more besides, the massive-scale survival game from Funcom promises to finally be the adaptation fans have been waiting for, with a twist.
This is a different take on the original story from Frank Herbert, and Duke Leto Atreides has survived here, with it being an alternative timeline to that of the books and films. Fremen are nowhere to be found, which also explains why the story begins like this. But that also explains that we will soon find them as we advance in the game, as these natives are essential to Dune, no matter the take.
Dune: Awakening releases on the 5th June, 2025, for PC, with PS5 and Xbox Series X|S following at a later date.
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Anurag Batham is a Writer at Thumb Wars zeroed in on video games but will also throw himself up on anything in association with anime and cinema. As with his favorite video games, give him anything with a linear story, be it Call of Duty or Braid, and he will be happy. He think of stories as food and wants to feed his readers something nutritious, food for thought.
