Dune: Awakening will not feature Sandworm-riding at launch

‘Dune: Awakening’ will not allow players to ride Sandworms at launch.

The upcoming massively-multiplayer-online game, which is being developed by Funcom, will let gamers explore and tackle the harsh desert landscapes of Arrakis as they try to avoid falling victim to the Harkonnens or the dreaded Sandworms that roam the planet.

Despite having been depicted in an epic scene in the newly-released movie ‘Dune: Part Two’, the game’s director Joel Bylos has revealed that riding the creatures won’t be available at launch as it proved too technically demanding for the makers of the title.

Speaking to Eurogamer, he said: "We actually looked into it. It's just a very strong technical cost, and also a very - it needs a purpose. And we haven't got what the movie has, which is like, 'Go through the southern sandstorms, get to the southern part [of Arrakis]'. So yeah, we don't have that yet."

Bylos also explained how the Sandworms would lend themselves to the mechanics of the game and revealed that the beasts pose the greatest threat to players.

He said: "You don't lose a lot of items unless you get eaten by a Sandworm. If you get eaten by a Sandworm, then you wake up naked - but if another person kills you, you drop, like, some resources and maybe some bullets that you're carrying. We're quite cognisant of trying to make it approachable to players."