adminDune Awakening is expanding beyond PC with a console release, prompting questions about how the survival game will evolve and what kinds of games can reach the widest audience. Funcom chief creative officer Joel Bylos discusses the studio’s work with the film rights holders, changing business models and why a distinctive visual style may matter more than photorealism.
Image credit: Funcom
Dune Awakening and collaboration with Hollywood
Developing a game based on a major film property means coordinating with its rights holders. For Dune Awakening, Funcom works with Legendary, which owns the adaptation rights. Bylos describes a structured review process in which the studio submits materials through Jira and follows up when approvals are needed.
He says the working relationship has grown more efficient as trust has developed. When both teams understand that the property is being handled responsibly, the process can stay practical rather than becoming a source of conflict. For players, that collaboration helps keep the game connected to the world and tone of the films.
Some decisions can also be referred to others involved with the franchise, including author Frank Herbert’s estate or director Denis Villeneuve. Bylos recalls feedback that the proposed game title sounded somewhat similar to Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The final title, Dune Awakening, was retained.
The close coordination reflects a broader change from earlier licensed games, which were sometimes treated as secondary tie-ins. Games and film companies now work together more closely, and the business structures behind game projects may also begin to resemble those used in cinema.
Could games adopt a film-style funding model?
Bylos sees potential in financing individual games through separate project entities. In this hypothetical approach, investors would support a specific project rather than taking a stake in the developer as a whole. That could spread financial risk, but it would also affect how teams are hired and how long they work together.
He cautions that a project-by-project employment model would need appropriate worker protections. Bylos points to strong unions as an important part of Hollywood’s system and warns that workers may be vulnerable without similar safeguards.
Console launch, customisation and monetisation
Bylos has worked at Funcom for nearly 20 years. After moving from Australia to Norway in the early 2000s, he spent three years washing cars while learning Norwegian. In 2007, he joined the studio as a quest designer on Age of Conan, later becoming creative director on Conan Exiles. He took on the chief creative officer role in 2019.
Preparing Dune Awakening for consoles has involved adapting the game and its balance. The update also adds a single-player mode and more options for adjusting difficulty. Bylos compares the customisation options to a creative mode, noting that players increasingly expect to tailor their experience.
Multiplayer and single-player games require different balancing, and console versions need optimisation for their target hardware. The PlayStation DualSense controller also offers opportunities to use haptics and adaptive triggers. Bylos cites the vibrations associated with walking across sand and the presence of a sandworm as moments that suit those features.
Funcom hopes the console release will attract more players and is considering ways to encourage them to keep playing, including additional in-game events. Dune Awakening currently uses a premium purchase model with paid downloadable content. Bylos says the studio will continue to assess which approaches make sense as the live-service market changes.
He also notes that Funcom previously experimented with paid advertising inside Anarchy Online, its 2001 science-fiction game. In that setting, external companies paid for banners within the game. Bylos says the format suited the futuristic city and did not significantly disrupt play. He says Funcom would not use that approach in Dune Awakening.
Why Dune Awakening may favour style over photorealism
Most Funcom staff are focused on Dune Awakening, while a smaller group continues to work on Conan Exiles. The studio is not ready to begin another game, and Bylos says its next project remains an open question. He also believes uncertainty around rapidly changing technology is making long-term planning and investment more difficult.
Although Funcom does not consider mobile development its core expertise, Bylos expects gaming on portable devices to keep growing. He points to Steam Deck-style hardware and argues that games will need to run well on a broad range of systems, including less powerful machines.
That could make memory-efficient optimisation and stylised art more important. Bylos observes that many younger players prioritise gameplay over visual realism, and points to World of Warcraft as an example of an art direction that has remained appealing over time despite updates.
For developers working on high-fidelity games, the challenge is to create a strong visual identity without making performance depend on the newest hardware. Dune Awakening’s future development will take place alongside those wider industry questions. As more people continue playing on older or lower-powered devices, style, accessibility and well-optimised gameplay may prove more durable than photorealism alone.
