Frank Herbert’s Dune is being turned into a video game again with the announcement of Dune: Spice Wars.
Funcom and developer Shiro Games (the makers of RTS Northgard) will be turning the rich sci-fi setting of sand, and plenty of political intrigue into an RTS with a little spice of 4X-inspired gameplay.
Dune: Spice Wars will have several playable factions, and multiple ways to win- that is by assuming control of the spice on Arrakis. You can play the diplomat way and use influence to get to your objectives or participate in some subterfuge by way of sabotaging, spying and assassinating opponents. Or make use of your technology or economy might to reign supreme. And if all else fails, there’s always open war.
The game will draw inspiration more directly from the novels rather than the recent film, though given both game and film comes from the same source, you can expect some shared elements between them.
“I think I speak for every single person at Shiro Games, when I say that we are all massive fans of Dune – both of the original novel and the new and spectacular Denis Villeneuve film. To be able to bring this universe to life as a strategy game again is incredible,” Shiro Games’ CEO Sebastien Vidal says in a press release.
Dune has always been an influential work, even in the video games space. Westwood Studios’ Dune II was the game that would define the elements of the modern RTS genre.
Funcom also has a survival game using the Dune IP in the works, but that is being made by another developer separate from Shiro Games.
Dune: Spice Wars will be releasing first in Early Access on PC, sometime in 2022.