Funcom are making a multiplayer, open-world survival Dune game

Funcom announced back in 2019 that they planned to make Dune games based on Frank Herbert's sci-fi spice and sandworms novels. They followed through by releasing 4X strategy game Dune: Spice Wars last month, and now it seems they're ramping up development on a new open world survival game set in the Dune universe.

The latest news comes via a set of job listings on the Funcom website. "Dune is calling and Funcom has answered. Will you?" reads the top of the page. Below, there's a broad description of what they want to make: a multiplayer open world survival game, set on Arrakis, which will be Funcom's "most ambitious project yet."

This isn't the first time we've heard of the project. It was reported by VentureBeat in December last year that Funcom were making a survival game set in the Dune universe with development support from German studio Nukklear. The project was said to take cues from Funcom's Conan Exiles, which is also a multiplayer survival game.

The job listings suggest development is continuing and growing, as Funcom are looking for engineers, artists, designers, production staff and more.

While not perfect, Dune: Spice Wars gives some reason to be hopeful. Nic Reuben felt the game dragged mid-campaign in his review, but otherwise found it an intricate, polished, pleasant surprise even in early access.