Dune: Awakening director says the game isn’t trying to be a traditional MMORPG

Funcom is still trying to pin down what, exactly, Dune: Awakening is. In a new interview, creative director Joel Bylos again pushed back on the idea that the survival MMO is meant to work like a traditional MMORPG, saying the studio isn’t building a classically structured online RPG in the usual theme park mold.

That probably won’t end the debate. Funcom has spent years describing Dune: Awakening with MMO language while also repeatedly distancing it from the MMORPG label whenever the comparison gets too specific. At this point, the clearest read is that the studio wants players to expect a large-scale online survival game with persistent multiplayer systems, but not something built around the standard quest hubs, dungeon runs, and raid progression people often associate with MMOs.

Bylos’ latest comments seem aimed at that distinction. The game is still positioned as a shared-world experience on Arrakis, with survival mechanics, PvP danger, and the kind of social and economic interaction you’d expect from a long-running online game. What Funcom keeps resisting is the expectation that it should map neatly onto games like World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XIV.

That’s not really new, but it does show this is still a messaging issue around the game. For players following Dune: Awakening, the practical takeaway hasn’t changed much: expect survival systems first, MMO-scale multiplayer second, and don’t go in looking for a conventional hotbar MMO with a familiar endgame structure.

Dune: Awakening is Funcom’s open-world multiplayer survival game set in the Dune universe. It has been one of the studio’s highest-profile projects for a while now, and the MMORPG question has followed it through multiple interviews and previews. For now, Funcom’s answer remains basically the same, even if the wording keeps changing.