Funcom have brought in developers Nukklear to help create a new open world survival game based on Frank Herbert’s Dune series. Funcom picked up the license in 2019 and it is said the game will be inspired by another Funcom title, Conan Exiles.
“As the Dune open-world survival game is the most ambitious project we’ve ever undertaken at Funcom, having skilled and reliable partners is an absolute must. With Nukklear we have just that. We’ve benefited particularly from their expertise in vehicular based gameplay, but I know them as highly skilled and creative game developers in general,” said Rui Casais, Funcom CEO.
“We’re grateful to Funcom for bringing us on to help bring Dune to a new audience. We’ve supported and collaborated on many projects over the years, but taking on Dune is by far the biggest yet,” said Kirk Lenke, CEO of Nukklear. “Our team welcomes the challenge and is confident in the expertise that Nukklear brings to the table.”
It’s been quite a while since we had a game based on Dune, the first being adventure game for the Commodore Amiga in 1992 which you can still play online here. It was followed by what is often considered to be the first “mainstream modern real-time strategy game”, Dune II.
The last attempt at a game in the Dune world was 2001’s Dune Generations, an online MMO that was was in the alpha stages of development when the publisher Cryo filed for bankruptcy.
The recent hit movie has revived interest in the franchise and although there was no tie-in game two characters from the film made their way to Fortnite.
Funcom’s new Dune game does not have a release date and it seems like it’s a good few years away. If I were a gambling bear I would put money on it coming out somewhere near the release of the second Dune movie.
Source: Venturebeat
