Since mid-2024, the beta of Dune: Awakening has been running continuously for a small number of selected testers. Developer Funcom has now released some data about the test, including a shocking number: many mice had to die for players to live.
What kind of game is this?
- Dune: Awakening is an ambitious project that aims to combine MMORPG and survival. However, you play in a world where Paul Atreides was never born.
- The game is developed by Funcom, the studio that created Age of Conan and Conan Exiles. The developers were able to learn a lot for Dune: Awakening from Conan Exiles.
- The game is set to be released in 2025. Currently, a closed beta is running, but under NDA. So, there is not much information coming from the game itself. You can find all info on the release, beta, and content of Dune: Awakening.
This is why players kill mice: In a blog post from December, the developers shared some data about the game. Among them is a quite specific statistic: the beta testers have extracted over 1.5 million liters of water from corpses.
Thirst is a big enemy in Dune: Awakening. As in most survival games, you need to take care of your hydration. In the desert, this is harder than anywhere else. Therefore, there is the option to let corpses bleed out to obtain water.
This does not only work with human NPCs but also with animals – such as the cute little desert jumping mice, the “Muad’dib”. Dozens of them are said to have died to acquire their water.
The developers are shocked: “Nearly a hundred Muad’dib have had their blood drained (so the kangaroo mouse, not the son of Duke Leto, who does not exist in our world). How could you?”
Thirst is bad – But people are worse
The main reason for player deaths is not even that they are dying of thirst. Thirst is only in third place, as the developers’ statistics show. Worse are the gigantic sandworms and especially other people:
- NPC opponents are responsible for 58% of player deaths
- 27% were eaten by sandworms
- “only” 22% of players ultimately died of thirst
- proudly, 2% have not died (yet) after 10 hours of gameplay
The figures are the official numbers from the developers – although we are not quite sure how they arrive at 107% deaths.
When you can finally see the game for yourself, we do not know yet. The beta is still closed, and you can sign up for it on the official website, but access is not guaranteed. The release date is only narrowed down to sometime in 2025.
At gamescom 2024, however, MeinMMO editor and survival expert Benedict Grothaus already had the opportunity to check out the game. After hundreds of hours in Conan Exiles, he is excited: Dune: Awakening played: The survival MMO offers exactly what I hoped for after Conan Exiles
