Strong Player Retention Fuels Future Plans
The developers behind the highly anticipated MMO survival game, Dune: Awakening, are reportedly thrilled with the game's post-launch performance, particularly its player retention. Ole Andreas Hayley, the Production Director for the project, shared in a recent interview with GamesRadar+ that player retention has been “extremely high” and has surpassed all of the studio's initial expectations.
This positive news comes despite the game currently sitting at 74th on Steam's list of most popular titles. While Dune: Awakening saw an impressive peak of 189,333 concurrent players at its launch, daily active users now hover around 30,000. This data suggests that while the initial launch drew a massive crowd, the game has successfully cultivated a dedicated and robust core player base, which is crucial for the long-term health of any online multiplayer title.
A Decade of Arrakis and Beyond
The excellent player engagement has paved the way for the development team to outline an ambitious ten-year plan for the game. This long-term roadmap includes introducing new maps and even entirely new planets, leveraging the rich lore of Frank Herbert's Dune universe, which offers immense creative freedom. Discussions are already underway for adding polar regions to Arrakis, and in the future, players might even journey to Caladan, the ancestral home planet of House Atreides.
Hayley expressed the team's excitement about these expansions, stating, “Now we can start implementing all the ideas we didn't manage to add at release, and then expand the entire universe. We have already discussed a polar region. Over time, we will also travel to new planets. Yes, the team is very inspired by the opportunity to explore everything Dune has to offer.”
Synchronized Vision with the Films
The development team also aims to maintain a degree of synchronicity with the ongoing film adaptations from Warner Bros. While game content won't be directly dictated by movie premieres, the goal is to create a cohesive experience for fans across different media. Hayley elaborated on this, saying, “Well, for example, we're talking about introducing a new faction that will appear in the films. We want to ensure that we are in a certain synchronicity so that viewers get a connected experience and exploration of Arrakis. But this is the extent of cinema's influence on us.”
Future updates are also expected to delve deeper into the culture of the Fremen and introduce the diverse biomes of other worlds mentioned in the Dune saga. With such ambitious plans from Funcom, players can look forward to many reasons to remain engaged with Dune: Awakening on Arrakis and beyond for years to come.
Currently, Dune: Awakening is available for PC via Steam, with a console release planned for next year. The game already includes text localization for several languages, including Russian, ensuring a broad international audience can enjoy the experience.
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