Dune: Awakening won't feature sandworm-riding at launch - and no penis-sliders either

eurogamer.net:

Sandworms play a major part in Dune: Awakening, the big survival MMO coming some time soon from Funcom, the developers behind Conan: Exiles — but the game won't feature the novel's famous sandworm-riding come launch. And, presumably much more importantly for Conan fans, there'll be no penis sliders either.

There will be sand-walking, though, and there's no ruling out of sandworm-riding down the line. We spoke with Dune: Awakening's creative director Joel Bylos at some length in our preview, and he explained the decision like this:

«We actually looked into it. It's just a very strong technical cost, and also a very — it needs a purpose. And we haven't got what the movie has, which is like, 'Go through the southern sandstorms, get to the southern part [of Arrakis]'. So yeah, we don't have that yet.»

It's worth contextualising that a bit. Dune: Awakening will have sandworms, for one, with them acting as a major mechanic in the game's cycle of venturing out into the deep desert, gathering spice and returning to a safe haven behind the shield wall. Different worms of different sizes will appear in different areas — the deeper desert has the larger, ring-mouthed worms for instance, with smaller and more traditionally-jawed ones in other areas.

It will also only have two factions at launch — the Harkonnens and the Atreides — and given its lack of central focus on religion, with the sandworm-riding Fremen described as «the core of the religion» by Bylos, that makes more sense. You also very much won't be playing as a real messianic, «chosen one» figure, Bylos explained, which also adds up — but he didn't totally rule sandworm-riding out. Along with him stressing the worm-riding not being available «at launch», he also mentioned «there's a third faction that I'd like to get in,» but similarly, «that probably won't come 'til post-launch.»

In the meantime, sandworms will still play a significant part,