Publisher, Funcom, and Developer, Shiro Games,haves announced that Dune: Spice Wars will enter Steam Early Access on April 26th and it will be the first time in two decades Dune fans will be able to play a new game in the franchise.
In addition to the news, the developer has detailed the game’s fourth and final playable faction, the desert-dwelling Fremen. Players who end up playing as this faction will be uniquely positioned in the game by expanding their area of influence in order to take control of the planet. Some advantages Fremen faction players will have in the game include “a greater capacity to move across and withstand the open desert, less chance to attract colossal sandworms, and an improved ability to ally with hidden Sietches (neutral native settlements).”
Dune: Spice Wars was initially revealed this past December at The Game Awards 2021 following the release of the franchise’s recent movie adaptation in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune. Similar to the movie, Dune: Spice Wars is based Frank Herbert’s sci-fi masterpiece, Dune which is set to pit four factions against each other on the desert planet, Arrakis. Factions on the planet will be pitted against each other in desert supremacy for the universe’s most valuable resource, spice which will be played for in the game’s union of real-time strategy and 4X elements.
“With so many massive Dune fans in the studio, the excitement I see every day of working with this universe is very real, and we hope this comes across in the game. With all this passion for the source material and all the know-how we’ve gathered from making Northgard, we can’t wait to put this game into players’ hands,” Shiro Games CEO, Sebastien Vidal said in a press release.
Players will have to balance military power, infiltration, political influence, and resource production by controlling one of the game’s four factions which include Atreides, Harkonnen, Smugglers, or Fremen. Whichever faction players end up choosing will have their own distinct strengths and weaknesses as they explore the desert, expand, and seize control.
Dune: Spice Wars is set to release on PC via Early Access on April 26th, nothing has been confirmed as far as when the full release is coming. While Funcom has the exclusive rights to develop and release Dune games on PC and consoles, this doesn’t confirm that a console version of Dune: Spice Wars is officially confirmed but Shiro Games says its looking into if a console version of the game with optimized controls is a possibility.
