The next big survival project from Funcom, Dune, is shaping to be an open world multiplayer game fairly similar to Conan Exiles. The main exception, though, is that this newest Dune game is planning on offering a much more robust and ambitious take on the popular genre, and developer Funcom is now no stranger to creating successful survival titles.
Conan Exiles, one of Funcom's most recent previous titles, literally saved the company from bankruptcy and closure. Not only did the game manage to recoup its production costs, but it also met the company's sales expectations for the entire year in just one month. Conan Exiles exceeded the expectations of both the developers and the community, and has found love for its dark fantasy aesthetics, rich set of gameplay features and opportunities, and endless freedom and replayability. Conan Exiles has seen dozens of updates, DLCs, and expansions, and with this success in mind Funcom’s desire to create an even more exciting survival title shouldn’t come as a surprise.
According to Funcom’s annual report for the 2019 financial year, Dune is indeed being developed with Conan Exiles serving as the major reference point. The game is multiple times compared to the company’s blockbuster hit across the document; on top of that, Dune is literally described as a "Games as Service" title from the outset. Dune is planned to be a multiplayer open world project, and just like with the Conan IP, Dune's MMO will hopefully launch a series of future titles belonging to various genres in the same universe.
Right now, the incredibly ambitious Dune game is still in pre-production. The actual development phase is expected to last for about two years, so the game is not going to release any time soon. The current budget is estimated to be somewhere in the range of $30-50 million, but the publisher is willing to take risks and attract additional financial support for the upcoming Dune title if more funding is needed. With several new projects in the pipeline, Dune will remain Funcom’s primary focus for the coming years.
Having secured the license rights for the Dune IP, Funcom could’ve rushed the first game taking the easy route of redesigning Conan Exiles to fit Frank Herbert’s iconic sci-fi setting. Instead, the company is treating Dune's MMO as its most valuable asset, hugely investing in the development process and building the title from scratch. The sheer excitement from meeting the legendary Shai-hulud face to face (or whatever serves as the sandworm’s face) should be priceless to classic Dune’s fans, and hopefully the response to the game will justify all of the monetary risk Funcom is currently taking.
Source: Funcom