Shiro Games has announced Dune: Spice Wars, “a real-time strategy game with 4X elements based on Frank Herbert’s groundbreaking novel Dune”. It will be released into PC early access next year.
Created by the same team behind Northgard and published by Funcom, the game will include several playable factions based on Dune’s houses, and will include options for politics, subterfuge, and combat. Your goal, of course, is to control Arrakis’ Spice using your armies and spice harvesters, while avoiding sandworms, sandstorms, and enemy forces.
“You can deploy agents to sabotage, assassinate and spy on your opponents,” reads the press release, “use political means to influence the Landsraad and pass beneficial resolutions, amass incredible wealth and simply overwhelm the other houses through economic and technological supremacy, or you can opt for open war.”
The early access game will focus on single player gameplay, with multiplayer and story Campaign modes to be added before full release. The Campaign is not yet set in stone, but is likely to ” allow players to write their own stories, based on the characters and factions they play.”
The game’s been produced with help from film studio Legendary, which means the looks and writing should feel of a piece with Denis Villeneuve’s recent movie adaptation.
Publisher Funcom has made clear that this is a separate game to the open world survival game it’s developing itself, which will be unrelated to Dune: Spice Wars.
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