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Dune Officially Returns Next Week With a New Release
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Published Sep 17, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT
Explore Arrakis at your own pace.
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Dune fans only have a few months left to wait for the theatrical release of Dune: Part Three, the next installment in the desert epic starring Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya. Director Denis Villeneuve launched the film franchise, based on the science-fiction novel by Frank Herbert, in 2021 with Dune: Part One. In 2024, it was followed by a record-breaking sequel, Dune: Part Two, which earned more than $500 million at the box office worldwide. The franchise has also won a total of eight Academy Awards across its first two films.
Those itching to get back into the world of Arrakis can do so as early as next week when Dune: Awakening launches for both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on Sept. 22. Awakening released on PC last summer as a multiplayer, open-world survival game; the console launch also adds a long-anticipated single-player mode.
Solo Experience Awaits in Dune: Awakening Update
The new single-player mode in Dune: Awakening is fully customizable: you can choose a preset difficulty mode or manually adjust specific difficulty levels in areas such as harvesting, combat, and survival. You can select one of several preset difficulty settings, or manually adjust the difficulty of specific components of the game such as harvesting, combat, and survival. Developer Funcom described the forthcoming update as "the best version of Dune: Awakening yet." Although the game's multiplayer mode has been out for more than a year, Funcom reported that only about 20% of players actually engaged in player-versus-player combat.
In terms of the narrative, the single-player mode functions similarly to the multiplayer mode, and the update on Sept. 22 will bring new story content to explore as well. The story in Awakening takes place in the year 10,199 AG — roughly eight years after the events of the first Dune film. Though set in the same cinematic universe, the game diverges from the film's timeline in a major way. In the films, Lady Jessica defies the Bene Gesserit by bearing a son, Paul Atreides, instead of the daughter she was ordered to have. But in Awakening, she has a daughter, so Paul Atreides was never born. (Sorry, Timothée Chalamet.)
The new single-player experience also comes with an unintended bonus: it allows players to explore every corner of the map at their own pace. And there's a good reason to take your time exploring Arrakis. Funcom worked directly with Greig Fraser, the Oscar-winning cinematographer of the Dune films, to help recreate the planet using official assets and concept art.