Dune: Awakening live coverage: Server status, launch info, and all the latest news

Dune: Awakening is one of the top 10 games on Twitch right now

The usual suspects like Valorant and Minecraft are top dog on Twitch right now, but Dune: Awakening squeezed into the top 10 with a respectable 69,300 viewers as of this writing. The only other brand new game in the top chart is Mario Kart World.

Would Frank Herbert have liked Mario Kart?

Please god, someone fix my cape (and other Dune glitches)

As far as MMO launches go, Dune: Awakening's transition from advanced access to full release has been rather smooth. There's been the occasional server hiccup or spot of lag, but nothing took the game offline in any major capacity, so we'll call that a win. It's not without a few weird bugs or glitches, though.

Like this thing my cape keeps doing, which is ultimately a non-issue, but it's on my last nerve. The cape on my Scavenger's Armor just endlessly stretches, like it's attaching to some unknown object underground—possibly a secret sandworm tracking me? Fortunately, it only seems to be this particular piece of equipment that's borked, but it was enough to expedite my upgrade process.

I've double-checked everything on my end, too. Checked my resolution settings, updated my drivers (including the hotfix), restarted, tweaked PC settings, and prayed quietly to my GPU. Nothing works; this cape is cursed. Or at least I hope it's the cape and not another bad 4080 Super on my end.

Ultimately, not overly worried as long as this doesn't extend to more equipment. I've had a mostly smooth experience myself through two beta tests and the advanced access, but over the last 24 hours, I've:

• Encountered a weird thing where all of my weapons stopped working, had to restart
• Drove right through a mountain and got trapped inside, forcing me to respawn
• Got slingshot by a big ole sandworm across the map (and lived)

The official Dune: Awakening Discord notes a few known issues, too. My favorite of the future patch notes is the one warning you not to kill your mentor: "We've understood that some people do not understand that their actions have consequences and have chosen to kill their mentor before completing their training. Ignoring several warnings. Now they are upset that they can no longer train. The Sisterhood has heard your mewling acolytes. We will provide an opportunity for you to continue your training in a future patch - but we expect you learn a valuable lesson about the price of betrayal."

Dune: Awakening peaks at 142,050 concurrent players on launch day, not quite enough to dethrone Bongo Cat

I'd call it a great first* day for Dune: Awakening: minimal server issues, steadily positive reviews**, and a whole heap of players setting foot on Arrakis. It looks like the concurrent player count has peaked at just over 142,000 on launch day: a healthy figure for a new MMO, enough to make it the 9th most played game on Steam according to SteamDB.

And it's just getting started. I feel pretty confident we'll see those numbers rise throughout the week and especially into the weekend. Will Dune: Awakening climb higher up the Steam charts? Will it surpass games like Elden Ring Nightreign and the all-powerful Bongo Cat? Time will tell.***

We'll be keeping up this live coverage throughout the week, so don't forget to check back from time to time. And if you're just getting into Funcom's new survival MMO, we've got plenty of Dune: Awakening guides to help you out.

* A lot of people have been playing it since Thursday, so it's not really a first day.
** Thanks in large part to minimal server issues.
*** And then I'll tell you.

"Dune: Awakening does not have a fishing minigame" reports social media account Is There a Fishing Minigame?

I know there's a social media account devoted to telling you whether or not you can pet the dog in a videogame, but I didn't know until today there's also an account telling you whether or not there's a fishing minigame in a videogame.

It's called, aptly, Is There A Fishing Minigame?, and today it reported that "Dune: Awakening does not have a fishing minigame." The account even added not one but two frowny faces in the disappointed missive.

I would perhaps disagree, as there is a sort of fishing you can do in Dune: Awakening, except you're the bait. Sandworms are constantly swimming through the desert and they will regularly surface and try to swallow you. That counts as fishing, I think, except they catch you instead of you catching them.

You definitely can't pet the dog in Dune: Awakening, however. There are no dogs. There's one mule I've seen, wearing a stillsuit, but you can't pet it either. There are also desert mice, but you can only drink their blood. Not a real pet-friendly game, it seems.

Steam reviews are holding steady at "Very Positive" on launch day

Something we see a lot these days with major launches is an immediate negative review score on Steam. That's usually because people who have no issues with the game play for a few hours before posting a review, but players who experience crashes or server queues or performance problems stop playing to register a quick thumbs-down.

We even saw it with Dune: Awakening on Thursday, when head start players encountered some server problems, crashes, and other technical issues. That trend reversed itself quickly and Dune: Awakening rose to Mostly Positive and then Very Positive.

A good indication that Funcom's servers are handling all the new players is that the ratio of positive and negative reviews hasn't spiraled today. On June 7, 8, and 9, players posted roughly 2,000 positive reviews and 200 negative reviews. That's holding true today, too, with (at the moment) 2,087 positive reviews and 198 negative reviews (per SteamDB).

Another good sign that Dune: Awakening is getting off to a strong start: people are enjoying the game and having very few technical issues. Let's hope it stays that way.

Ultimate edition upgrade issue fixed, except it's not

A bit of progress on the Dune: Awakening ultimate edition upgrade problem from earlier:

"The issues with upgrade packages and DLC pricing has now been fixed and should show correctly on Steam," Funcom said on Discord.

Thing is, there's now another problem, as the stuff you get when you upgrade, like special skins, apparently don't show up. "We are investigating this with Steam and we will inform once we get confirmation it fully works."

A quick story about my busted but beautiful buggy

Since the launch is a bit quiet can I tell you about my buggy real quick? My guildmate Mike and I went out in his mining buggy, driving from Eastern Gap through Hagga Rift and to the Eastern Sheild Wall: a pretty long trip. After doing some mining, we cleared out a base and found a second buggy, which I decided to drive back.

But this thing was wrecked. Every piece of it was at like 8% health. It was blasting out thick black smoke. I got constant warnings that parts were on the brink of failure. But we got most of the way home before, y'know, stuff actually began exploding.

First one of the treads blew up, and I could still drive it despite it listing pretty heavily to the left. Then the engine literally exploded. I'm no car expert but that's a pretty critical part of a vehicle, right?

I was able to patch it back up to the absolute minimum to continue to be able to drive. And we made it back! There was nothing to do but disassemble it and scrap it (durability can eventually drop so far it's impossible to fix), but I was sad. Even though it was a smoking, exploding mess, it was a good little buggy and got me home safe. RIP.

Dune: Awakening just crossed 125,000 concurrent players on Steam

Not like it was unexpected or anything. On day one of the head start last week, Dune: Awakening peaked at about 93,000 concurrent players on Steam, and on Sunday it scored over 117,000 ccu. Even before the official launch, it was big.

So crossing 125,000 concurrent players on day one of the real launch day isn't exactly a surprise—but it does signify that even with a couple of speedbumps, servers seem to mostly be stable and people are getting in to play.

Steam store issue: Players can't upgrade from deluxe to ultimate edition

Players are reporting issue with upgrading from the Dune: Awakening deluxe edition to the ultimate edition. There should just be an option to pay the difference in cost between the two (like when you upgrade from the base edition to the deluxe edition), but apparently it informs players that they need to buy the deluxe edition... which they already have.

Funcom is aware of the problem and is investigating.

Dune: Awakening had its first Coriolis storm last night, and it looked pretty intense

Last night Dune: Awakening got its first Coriolis storm: the weekly event where the Deep Desert map gets overwritten: resources, points of interest, and any player structures in the Deep Desert zone get completely wiped. The storm's arrival also leads into weekly server maintenance.

But just because the storm is a nice cover for Funcom to shut servers down and wipe the desert clean doesn't mean there isn't some immersion. In the hours leading up to the storm, winds increase, sand blows around, and lightning begins to strike. If you're outside in it, your character will even put their hand up to shield their face from the harsh winds.

Here's a video from Reddit where you can see it in action. I'm not advanced enough to make it to the Deep Desert yet, but even in other areas of the map you can see the weather getting worse and worse as the storm approaches. Pretty cool.

North American servers had some "unplanned downtime" and some are "taking a little longer to become available"

Looks like North American servers have had a bit of trouble this morning. They went down completely for a bit, in what Funcom called "unplanned downtime" on the official Discord. They began coming back up around 6:00 am PST, though "some newly created NA worlds and servers are taking a little longer to become available."

Hopefully that will be the end of North American's server woes. Small sample size (a sample size of one) but I just jumped into my NA server with no problem. I hope you're having smooth sailing, too.

Funcom is "closely monitoring servers and spinning up new ones" for launch day

So far, so good? I'm not seeing any major complaints about server issues and playercount is steadily rising since this morning's patch and launch. I'm sure a lot of players are still downloading the game and haven't actually tried to join a server, though, so we'll keep a close eye on things.

"We are closely monitoring servers and spinning up new ones as necessary to give everyone a place to call home on Arrakis," Funcom said on the official Discord. The list of Dune: Awakening servers has also been updated. For those who have been playing with advanced access, Funcom says "5 additional Hagga Basins have also been added to the head start servers."

Players are already riding sandworms—even though that's not an actual feature

Spotted this yesterday, but players have already figured out how to ride sandworms, even though Funcom expressly said that wasn't going to be a feature in Dune: Awakening (yet). Turns out, if you use the right combo of skills and gear, you can tempt the worm to charge, avoid it's gaping maw, and leap onto its back for a ride.

Here's video to prove it. Lisan al-Gaib!

Dune: Awakening review-in-progress: Fun in the sun

I know, I know, it's way to early to even think about a proper review since I've only been playing since Thursday and this is an MMO that's meant to be played for hundreds of hours. But I thought I'd put together a few early thoughts covering my first 25 hours of the game. There's plenty more to come!

In short: I'm having fun. For a bit more elaboration, read my Dune: Awakening review-in-progress.