Off all the upcoming big MMOs coming up in the near future, Dune Awakening appears to be one of the most graphically intensive. In addition, with an emphasis on server meshing, as well as vast open deserts hosting vast PvP battles, it's set up to be a real looker.
This is great news for those of us with powerful rigs, but it also means a lot of time is going into making sure the game works on hardware of various levels of power. Enter the Xbox Series S - which the game is still set to release on alongside the PlayStation 5 and PC - and that is a "challenge" according to chief product officer Scott Junior.
"So, it's one of the reasons we're coming out on PC first. There's a lot of optimisations we need to do before we release on the Xbox. But yeah, Xbox Series S is a challenge." Junior states in an interview at Gamescom 2024 late last month. Junior also provided insight into what some of the focus has been during ongoing closed beta tests, and stated that a lot of time has already been spent making sure the game runs on all manner of machines with different hardware specs.
"Unreal does a lot of the work for us in some ways. What we're more doing is optimisation of assets, and using various technologies, be it FSR or something else, to replicate frames. We want the game to look stunning on high-end, whether you have a 3070 or a 4090, but we also want it to look good... I don't think we've released our min-spec yet, but y'know powerful cards from a few years ago should be able to run the game. It should look good - it won't be able to leverage the ultra-spec options, but it'll still look nice."
However, given the ambitious level of scale the game is going for, we asked Junior if it'll still demand a lot from lower-spec machines, even with all the work done on optimisation. His response was optimistic. " Yeah, yeah it does. But it will still perform well on hardware that's years and years old. We'll be able to do it!"
If you're looking to get into Dune Awakening and test out the game for yourself, Junior stated that the intake of new players will increase considerably over the coming months. Up until now, tests have been apparently been with a "core player base", but future tests are aiming to push the player limit on in-game servers to the limit.
"Our next beta is intended to competely max out one world, and then testing that from the start to the very end with our maximum concurrent users at one time." When pressed on whether a true open beta will be offered to players in the coming months, Junior kept his cards close to his chest, but stated that invites will increase quite a bit in the months leading up to Dune Awakening's early 2025 release window.
Are you excited about Dune Awakening? Let us know below, and what platform you're aiming to play it on.