With Dune: Awakening's launch fast approaching, the survival MMO space remains a difficult one to navigate. Developers for Dune: Awakening can look to the initial failures and eventual successes of another major game in the space, Fallout 76, as an example. Where it appeared at first that the Fallout IP simply wasn't enough to compensate for the underwhelming gameplay at launch, 76 had many things working against it. While it would seem these massive franchises have equally massive built-in audiences, it turns out things are slightly more complicated than that and these MMOs cannot rely on name recognition alone.

It's obvious that no MMO is a guaranteed success, and the gameplay for Dune: Awakening will need to be as bug-free as possible upon release, especially when it comes to the core survival mechanics that will likely drive the game. Over time, Bethesda eventually improved Fallout 76 from its abysmal launch state and attempted to mend things with its players. As such, Funcom (the company behind Dune: Awakening) will need to maintain a good rapport with longtime fans of the franchise and newcomers alike, avoiding blatant money grabs and microtransactions that are overall unpopular among MMO players.

Why Dune: Awakening As A Survival MMO Isn't A Guaranteed Success

The Spice Must Flow For This Survival MMO

Dune: Awakening promises to deliver on one of the franchise's most compelling elements: the vast, resolved with the Wastelander update in 2020.

Developers for Dune: Awakening have a baked-in audience to some extent with the wildly popular novels, films, and TV show, though it isn't clear how much of that audience will be interested in a survival MMORPG experience, or if the game will strike the right chords for fans that plan on playing. Based on early previews of Dune: Awakening, the survival elements are compelling, while the specific MMO and PvP-related features aren't entirely clear yet. Dune: Awakening devs have set expectations pretty high for fans of the franchise and the survival MMO genre, so delivering on these promises will be crucial to the game's success.

How Fallout 76 Recovered From A Rough Launch In The MMO Space

Fallout 76 Had A Buggy Launch Followed Up By Greedy Marketing Campaigns

One glaring issue that Funcom will hopefully avoid with Dune: Awakening is an egregious number of bugs present at launch, something that doomed Fallout 76 from the start and continued to be a thorn in its side as Bethesda released "patches" that only exacerbated or worsened bugs and performance issues. This put a bad taste in players' mouths from the onset, implying the under-developed game in its released form was a blatant cash grab; Bethesda had been accepting preorders for months prior to launch. Dune: Awakening will need to be as polished as possible to make an impact on its potential fan-base.

As if the bugs in Fallout 76 weren't bad enough, Bethesda set out on a series of grotesque marketing campaigns both before and after the game's launch that ultimately resulted in Australian court ruling ordering refunds for deceptive marketing. However, after all this negative sentiment, the game has a relatively decent daily player count for an almost seven-year-old game. Time appears to have been favorable for Fallout 76, and the addition of quests, NPCs, and quality-of-life updates offer players a more entertaining overall experience.

What Dune Can Learn From Fallout 76 And Other Survival MMOs

Dune: Awakening's Success Will Depend On Positive Player Engagement

Overall, Dune: Awakening can learn a lot from other MMOs in the same space, and it boils down to the marketing, gameplay, future quality-of-life updates, DLC, etc. being player-centric, and developers at Funcom maintaining a strong relationship with fans of the franchise and MMOs in general. It's a good sign that Dune: Awakening will include heavy narrative and political intrigue that connects to the open world survival gameplay mechanics in tangible ways. Including dramatic elements, questlines, and NPCs and allowing players to decide for themselves whether to engage with them is also a positive sign.

However, Dune: Awakening could face a tricky launch as well if both RPG and MMO elements don't integrate meaningfully. Developers should not lean too hard on the Dune fandom, but should still honor the source material in significant ways. The combat will also need to pay homage to the IP's iconic staples, such as body shields, Stillsuits, and Crysknives, while also creating something unique and exciting for players. While it won't be clear until Dune: Awakening launches next year, so far it seems that developers have been learning from the successes and failures of survivalist MMOs such as Fallout 76.