Dune: Awakening launches in May, but its character creator is here now

By Patrick Hearn Published February 20, 2025

Today, Funcom announced its MMO survival game Dune: Awakening will launch on Steam on May 20, but the Character Creator & Benchmark Mode are available today. You can download these tools and spend as much time as you like tweaking your player character to look like Zendaya or Timothy Chalamet so that you can actually start playing when the game releases instead of spending six hours in the character menu.

The character you design can be imported into the game at launch. Funcom says you can fine-tune every aspect of your character, choose your home planet, caste, mentor, and more. The choices you make will influence your character’s starting abilities, but you’ll be able to unlock every School (class) by the end of the game, allowing you to pick and choose the abilities you want.

Benchmark Mode will give you a chance to measure how well the game runs on your hardware — and leave you with time to make upgrades if necessary. Dune: Awakening has relatively high system requirements.

Funcom also announced preorder bonuses. Preorder now, and you’ll get the Terrarium of Muad’Dib with a little desert mouse inside. If you’re planning to dive into Dune: Awakening, it’s almost worth preordering to get this little fella — he’s adorable, and apparently “wise in the ways of the desert. ”

You can get perks just for downloading the Character Creator and Benchmark Mode, too — a code for the Frameblade knife skin that you can redeem at launch.

Dune: Awakening will release on Steam for $50, and preorders will start soon. Even if you aren’t a Dune fan, the game promises to have a little something for everyone. The developer Funcom is also known for several other major titles like Conan Exiles and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey.