Dune: Awakening: Everything We Know

This page collects the confirmed facts about Dune: Awakening on Xbox, from its launch and Game Pass status to the free Blood and Ice expansion and everything Funcom has planned next. We update it as new details are announced.

Last updated 30 October 2026: added the Blood and Ice expansion, new events, the cosmetics store and Funcom’s planned roadmap for offline single-player, character copying and cross-play.

What is Dune: Awakening?

Dune: Awakening is an open-world survival game set on Arrakis. Players explore the deserts, gather resources, craft equipment, build a base and develop their character through a story that asks what would happen if Paul Atreides was never born. Players join the Atreides or the Harkonnen, train in the Schools of the Imperium and uncover the mystery of the missing Fremen. It can be played in single-player, with friends on a shared server, or on public servers.

Dune: Awakening on Xbox and Game Pass

Dune: Awakening launched on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC on 22 September 2026. It is included with Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass, and supports Xbox Play Anywhere, so one purchase covers Xbox and PC with shared progression. The standard game costs £39.99 / $49.99, with Deluxe and Ultimate Editions also available.

The Xbox launch arrived with a full single-player mode with difficulty presets and detailed custom settings, the conclusion of Book One’s story, a rebuilt Landsraad endgame, and new Specialisation and Augmentation systems. Every part of the game can now be played entirely in PvE.

Funcom says more than one million new players have joined Dune: Awakening since its console launch.

Blood and Ice: free expansion on 1 December

Announced on 29 October 2026, Blood and Ice is a free expansion for all players that launches on 1 December 2026. It adds the Polar Sink, a new survival map in Arrakis’ frozen north with two biomes:

• The tundra: where wealthy water shipper families defend lavish strongholds.
• The ice cap: a heavily guarded area where securing access to ice is the central goal.

Heat becomes an ally, and desert gear needs upgrading for the cold. The action returns to the ground, with traversal, temperature management and combat at the heart of progression, and resources found only in the Polar Sink craft cold-weather gear. The expansion offers around 35 hours of progression. Harvested ice can cool base equipment and speed up production, and new vehicle modules, augments and specialisation traits are included. Future updates will add more reasons to revisit the region. Our Blood and Ice news story has the full announcement.

Events and the cosmetics store

After The Scourge, an event about a disease spreading across Arrakis, the Water Crisis event arrives shortly after Blood and Ice, with players fighting over scarce water. Funcom calls these its biggest events yet. A new Events tab launches with the expansion, and events will run more often.

A new cosmetics store offers outfits, vehicle variants and base customisation, starting with rotating items that include looks from the films. A later update will keep the full catalogue available at all times. Funcom says these optional purchases help fund free updates.

What’s coming next

• November 2026: offline single-player.
• 1 December 2026: Blood and Ice expansion, followed shortly by the Water Crisis event.
• January 2027: characters can be copied from multiplayer servers to single-player, and from single-player to select private servers.
• January 2027 (planned): full cross-play, according to Funcom’s roadmap. It’s a plan, not a confirmed launch.
• 2027: several major free updates with new locations, mechanics and content.

“We’re far from done,” says Funcom CEO Scott Junior. “We have ambitious plans for Dune: Awakening in 2027, with several major free updates that will expand the game with new locations, mechanics, and content to discover.”

For the latest coverage, visit our Dune: Awakening hub. You can also follow Funcom’s updates on the official Dune: Awakening site.

Playing Dune: Awakening on Xbox? Tell us on X or Facebook.