The spice must flow. Or at least that’s what Funcom and German developer Nukklear are counting on with a new game in the Dune universe.
In 2019, Funcom acquired the rights to make a game based on Frank Herbert’s Dune, a popular science fiction series that has spawned several adaptations. The currently untitled project will take inspiration from another Funcom game named Conan Exiles and will focus on survival gameplay. After an investment from media giant Tencent, Funcom reached out to developer Nukklear to help co-develop the new title.
“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.
You need allies to survive planet Arrakis
The Hanover, Germany based Nukklear, founded in 1999, is a hybrid-remote company that boasts talent from around the world. Over the last 10 years, the company has worked on several projects of note including Destroy All Humans and Everspace. Recently, it received a grant from the German government to grow the team to aid with development of the new project.
“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.”
While the new game doesn’t yet have a release window, we expect the sleeper will awaken within a few years time.