Dune: Awakening delayed to June, but a 'large-scale beta weekend' is coming next month

Just over a month ahead of its planned release on May 20, a little more sand in our hourglasses will have to fall before we can play the full version of survival MMO Dune Awakening. The game has suffered a minor delay and is now set to arrive three weeks later, on June 10.

"Dune: Awakening is a beast of a game," Funcom wrote. "This is multiplayer survival on a massive scale, and we’re making gameplay and technical strides not seen in the genre before. We want to make sure we stick the landing."

The delay comes amidst an ongoing "persistent closed beta," which Funcom said has been providing "invaluable" feedback from testers over the weeks leading up to the game—and drove the decision to delay it a few weeks.

"We have a very active Discord going with our beta testers where our developers can interact directly with them to ensure we collaboratively make Dune: Awakening a better game," Funcom wrote. "Thanks to this process, we’ve concluded that with a bit more time to cook, we can act on a lot more of the feedback we know is important to our beta testers."

The postponement to June 10 means the five-day "head start" period offered in the deluxe and ultimate editions set for June 5. On the upside, Funcom said the June release will enable it to hold a "large-scale beta weekend" sometime in May, offering even more players the opportunity to check it out ahead of release. Details on that will be released soon.

Ahead of all that, Dune: Awakening developers will hold another livestream later today to showcase the game's combat. That's set to begin at 9 am PT/12 pm ET on YouTube.

In our recent hands-on with Dune: Awakening, PC Gamer editor Joshua Wolens remarked that the game "sounds tense, it sounds complex, it sounds, really, just like Dune."

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.

Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors

Best MMOs: Most massive
Best strategy games: Number crunching
Best open world games: Unlimited exploration
Best survival games: Live craft love
Best horror games: Fight or flight