'Dune: Awakening' Smashes Funcom Record With Over 1 Million Copies Sold
'Dune: Awakening launched 10 June and 1,000,000 players have awakened!' the studio said. 'It's now Funcom's fastest-selling game ever. To put it into perspective, it took Conan Exiles one year to reach this number. We're truly humbled and thankful for this reception. It must also be noted that you certainly don't live up to your title, because you have been busy since launch.
'Launch has been a Coriolis storm, and we're still riding that mighty gale. We have seen so many amazing things from all of you — the bases, the close calls with Shai-Hulud, the epic vehicle jumps, the struggles, discoveries, victories, heroic deaths, and so much more… We salute you, Sleepers.'
The milestone was announced alongside an infographic detailing several statistics about how the game has grown since launch, including 816,720 deaths to Shai-Hulud (otherwise known as the sandworm), six million grams of spice consumed, 25 million square kilometres of area surveyed, and the split of starting mentors chosen. The survival RPG also recorded an all-time peak of 189,333 players, smashing its previous record of 142,000 concurrent players.
Set in an alternate timeline in which Paul Atreides was never born, Dune: Awakening centres on an Arrakis caught in a civil war between House Atreides and House Harkonnen, while the Fremen have mysteriously vanished. The player character assumes control of an undercover agent working for the Bene Gesserit who must find the Fremen and 'awake the Sleeper'.
The title, which draws heavily from the original novels by author Frank Herbert, was launched earlier in June following a slight delay. It features both PvE and PvP elements, with the developer 'currently formulating a plan' to improve PvP in the Deep Desert, where griefing continues to be commonplace.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth's theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia's greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really. Dune Dune: Awakening Funcom
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Geek Culture
12 hours ago
- Geek Culture
'Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag' Remake Hinted At By Edward Kenway Voice Actor
Ubisoft's upcoming remake of its 2013 sea-faring stealth action title, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag , might be the studio's worst-kept secret, but its existence is all but confirmed following an obvious tease by game protagonist Edward Kenway's voice actor, Matt Ryan. This comes via a TikTok video by user Therebelarchive, in which Ryan was seen signing autographs at a recent fan convention. It was one such signing that drew fan attention, specifically comments he made while autographing a sealed Edward Kenway Funko Pop box. @therebelarchive Matt Ryan #assassinscreed #blackflag #edwardkenway #constantine ♬ original sound – therebelarchive While writing on the box, Ryan asks the fan if he has beaten the game, to which he adds, 'Well, you might have to beat it again…' When the fan replies, 'Is this true? I have to run through all of them again,' Ryan responds with a cheeky wink, saying, 'Well, especially this one (referring to Edward Kenway and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag ). There's a reason I say that, but I can't say anything.' His comments are probably the least subtle tease on the existence of a remake or remaster, at the minimum suggesting that a Black Flag -related project is on the horizon. These hints also come after numerous leaks surrounding the game, which was first reported via an anonymous Kotaku source in 2023, explaining Ubisoft's release strategy, claiming the game was in the earliest stages of development at the time, with Skull & Bones developer Ubisoft Singapore heavily involved with planning. Rumours once again stirred up in early June this year, this time during a live stream held by PureArts, who make figurines of video game characters. During a stream showcasing a range of new Assassin's Creed merchandise, fans noted the absence of Edward Kenway from the lineup, to which the presenter acknowledged the situation by saying that 'there is something going on with Edward' and that was why they were holding off launching a new version of the character. These hints and rumours are even more plausible considering Ubisoft doesn't have a new Assassin's Creed title set for this year, so a Black Flag remake or remaster could very well fill that void. All we need now is an official announcement, which Ubisoft will hopefully reveal sometime soon and quell the rumours once and for all. Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise 'duds' like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3 . He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying. Assassin's Creed Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag Ubisoft
Geek Culture
12 hours ago
- Geek Culture
Founding Xbox Member Says Company's Hardware Ambitions Are "Dead"
Laura Fryer, one of the original founding members of Xbox, has reflected on her time with the company and lamented its current roadmap, claiming that its hardware ambitions are 'dead'. In the latest video on her YouTube channel titled 'The Future of Xbox', Fryer spoke on her years at the company shipping the original 2001 Xbox console and 2005's Xbox 360, and reflected on Xbox's latest hardware collaboration, the upcoming ROG Xbox Ally gaming handheld, questioning the appeal of the device and what this means for the future of the company. 'There is literally no reason to buy this handheld,' she remarked, 'Obviously, as one of the founding members of the Xbox team, I'm not pleased with where things are today. I don't love watching all of the value that I helped create slowly get eroded away. I'm sad because, from my perspective, it looks like Xbox has no desire – or literally can't – ship hardware anymore.' 'So, this partnership is about a slow exit from the hardware business completely. Personally, I think Xbox hardware is dead.' Fryer then touched upon Xbox's current focus, its Game Pass subscription service, which provides gamers with an extensive library of titles for a monthly fee. Xbox has seemingly doubled down on this service, with recent big-name releases like Doom: The Dark Ages , Indiana Jones and the Great Circle , and even highly anticipated upcoming titles like Ninja Gaiden 4 or Wuchang: Fallen Feathers due out day one on Game Pass. 'Maybe it will work,' Fryer added, questioning what the company's long-term strategy is, 'Xbox has a deep portfolio… they can continue to outsource that work to external companies and make a lot of money releasing their older games – older games from an era when Xbox knew how to build them. But what is the long-term plan? Where are the new hits? What will make people care about the Xbox 25 years from now?' 'Next year marks the 25th anniversary of the Xbox, and I'm sure that they will have some big announcements and plans for honouring the milestone. Maybe next year is the year. Maybe next year is the year that the fog will clear, and all of us will see the beauty in these latest announcements. I guess we'll just have to wait and see…' And wait and see we shall, as the future of Xbox isn't looking too bright at the moment, with the company slowly losing console game exclusives in favour of moving to a multiplatform format, such as releasing its games on the Nintendo Switch 2, further reducing the appeal of buying an Xbox especially considering recent price hikes for its consoles and games. True to Fryer's words, Xbox seems to be focused on hardware collaborations at the moment rather than first-party devices, as apart from the ROG Xbox Ally, the company also recently released the Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition VR headset, so it remains to be seen if this will be their strategy moving forward, or if Xbox is just biding time until the next major console announcement. Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise 'duds' like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3 . He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying. game pass ROG Xbox Ally Xbox
Geek Culture
13 hours ago
- Geek Culture
'The Alters' Game Developer Comes Under Fire For Generative AI Usage, Promises Updates
11 Bit Studios, the Polish developer behind the recently released survival game The Alters , has come under fire for its usage of generative AI text and translation in the game, with the studio promising an update to replace these assets with handcrafted ones. The accusations first started last week, when players spotted what appeared to be AI-generated text on a screen in the game's Command Center. The image in question, which was posted on the game's Reddit thread, featured a line of text on screen which read 'Sure, here's a revised version focusing purely on scientific and astronomical data:', followed by the Captain's log, suggesting that the entire log was generated using prompts and AI, and that the developers forgot to delete the AI's initial response. Source: Reddit This wasn't the only such instance, however, as players of other language versions also pointed out similar occurrences, such as a user on BlueSky named Heitor De Paola, who posted a screenshot of the game in Portuguese, which featured the line 'Sure! Here is the translated text into Brazilian Portuguese.' These incidents definitely suggest that 11 Bit Studios used generative AI to not only produce lines of text for some in-game assets, but also for localisation. To complicate things further, The Alters does not include any disclosure on its Steam game page stating the use of such AI tools, something that Valve has made mandatory on their site. In response, 11 Bit Studios issued a statement on its social media channels, explaining that such assets 'were used strictly as temporary WIPs during the development process'. With regards to the AI-generated localisations, the team further explained that these were 'added at the final stage of development' and that due to time constraints, the team chose to use AI instead of their usual translation partners. To this end, the team also promised a hotfix for the game that is underway to replace the AI-generated lines with professional translations. This latest controversy comes one week after another studio, Frontier Developments, came under fire for AI usage in Jurassic World Evolution 3 , which used generative technology to create certain portraits in the game, leading to the team opting to remove such content after fan backlash. Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise 'duds' like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3 . He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying. 11 Bit Studios Generative AI The Alters
