Dune: Awakening on Xbox Series S will be a ‘challenge,’ says developer

Dune: Awakening developer Funcom has admitted that adapting the game for Microsoft’s less powerful Xbox Series S will be a “challenge”.

Speaking to VG247’s Connor Makar, Dune: Awakening chief product officer Scott Junior said “there’s a lot of optimizations we need to do before we release it on Xbox.” He noted that this is “one of the reasons we’re releasing on PC first.”

As revealed last month, Dune: Awakening will launch on PC early next year, though console versions for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S have yet to get a release date. Don’t worry just yet if you’re eager to try out Dune: Awakening on your Series S, though. Later in the conversation, Junior said that the Dune: Awakening team “could do it” and that work was underway.

Funcom isn’t the only developer to admit that the Series S added an extra layer of challenge during development. Baldur’s Gate 3 famously launched on Xbox a few months later due to issues with split-screen co-op on the less powerful Series S console.

Recently, former Naughty Dog and Rocksteady developer Del Walker said that he wished “the Series S never existed”, calling the console “annoying to optimize for” (though he didn’t name any specific games in the post).

Speaking of Dune: Awakening, our Deputy Editor Chris Tapsell got his hands on the survival MMO earlier this year, and spoke with Funcom’s Chief Creative Officer and the game’s Creative Director, Joel Bylos.

Funcom then went on to specifically address Dune: Awakening’s handling of religion, in response to concerns from the Dune community.