Dune: Awakening is ditching PvP as a mandatory endgame experience, as over 80% of lifetime players didn’t engage with it at all
Funcom has announced significant changes to Dune: Awakening’s endgame design, shifting from a player-versus-player (PvP) mandatory experience to a primarily PvE-first model. The decision comes from player engagement data revealing that over 80% of the game’s lifetime players exclusively engaged with PvE content, while only around 20% participated in PvP activities.
The studio will implement several changes to accommodate this shift: All PvP zones will be removed from the Hagga Basin map, and an alternative instance of the endgame Deep Desert map will be introduced with PvP completely disabled. However, Funcom is preserving PvP options for interested players—the original Deep Desert will remain as a dangerous PvP zone with a 2.5x resource multiplier to incentivize participation.
These modifications were introduced as part of the game’s recent chapter three update. In addition to the PvP changes, Funcom has announced that private server hosting is coming to the game, which should extend its longevity and create dedicated community hubs for players who want to customize their experience.
The pivot reflects Funcom’s acknowledgment that the convergence of PvE and PvP “didn’t align with our objectives.” By rebalancing the game’s design philosophy toward PvE while maintaining optional PvP content, the developer aims to better serve its playerbase’s demonstrated preferences.