Dune: Awakening Devs 'Sort of Sidestep Religion'

ign.com:

Developers at Funcom, the studio behind upcoming massively multiplayer online game Dune: Awakening, "sort of sidestep religion" in their take on the beloved science fiction universe.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Funcom chief creative officer and Dune: Awakening creative director Joel Bylos said the team ignores a major part of the Dune universe but, ironically, it seems to be all for the sake of preserving beloved lore.

Dune: Awakening takes place a few years before the story fans of the books and films will be most familiar with, but still in an alternative universe where certain decisions are made differently.

"Things are slightly different in our universe," Bylos said. "Many events are still the same, so it's not like we've gone all 'thousands of years ago, a rock slid in the wrong place and changed everything'. It's just a few years back. But the significant thing... It's really close to spoiler territory, which I can't really go through, but let's just say that for the large part, we sort of sidestep religion."

Bylos was unable to say anything more specific about this missing aspect, but it seemingly refers to one specific moment related to religion instead of this key aspect of Dune's universe being completely passed over. There's also a "very spiritual set of things" that players who take spice will encounter, with consumption and addiction used as central mechanics.

Dune: Awakening was announced in August 2022 but still lacks a release date. Coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC, the survival MMO received a new trailer in March 2024 which showed off Unreal Engine 5 gameplay across the brutal planet of Arrakis.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.