Dune: Awakening’s Free Blood and Ice Expansion Launches on Xbox on 1 December

Dune: Awakening’s free Blood and Ice expansion launches on 1 December 2026, taking players to the frozen north of Arrakis. It is free for all players, and Dune: Awakening is out now on Xbox and with Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass.

Funcom revealed the expansion in a new developer update on 29 October, alongside new events, a cosmetics store and a roadmap that includes offline single-player and full cross-play. The studio also says more than one million new players have joined the game since its console launch.

The Polar Sink

Blood and Ice adds the Polar Sink, an entirely new survival map with two biomes. Players start in the tundra, where wealthy water shipper families defend lavish strongholds. Beyond it lies a heavily guarded ice cap, where securing access to ice is the central goal.

The usual rules are flipped. Heat becomes an ally, and gear built for the desert needs upgrading to cope with the cold. The action returns to the ground, with traversal, temperature management and combat at the heart of progression. Resources found only in the Polar Sink are used to craft cold-weather gear.

Around 35 hours of progression

The new map offers around 35 hours of progression. Ice harvested from the ice cap can be used to cool base equipment and speed up production. The expansion also adds new vehicle modules, augments and specialisation traits, and players can return to the region for valuable resources, with future updates adding more reasons to go back.

Cosmetics store and bigger events

A new cosmetics store offers outfits, vehicle variants and extra base customisation. It launches with rotating items, including looks from the films, and a later update will keep the full catalogue available at all times. Funcom says the optional purchases help fund continued free updates.

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 supplies. Funcom calls these its biggest events yet. A new Events tab launches with the expansion to track progress and rewards, and events will run more often from now on.

Offline single-player and cross-play

Offline single-player is due in November. In January 2027, Funcom plans to let you copy characters from multiplayer servers to single-player, and from single-player to select private servers. Full cross-play is also on the roadmap for January 2027, though that’s Funcom’s plan rather than a locked-in date.

“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.”

Everything we know is in one place on our Dune: Awakening hub, and our Dune: Awakening: Everything We Know guide rounds up the full roadmap. You can read Funcom’s announcement on the official Dune: Awakening site.

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