Private Servers Coming to Dune: Awakening at Launch, With Some Limitations

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Dune: Awakening, the survival MMO set in the Dune universe, will offer rentable private servers starting from its head start launch on June 5. This is earlier than previously expected, as developer Funcom had initially planned to introduce private servers post-launch. The feature’s early arrival comes with a few caveats, mainly due to the game’s unique large-scale multiplayer infrastructure.

Dune: Awakening stands out from traditional survival games by blending persistent player-built worlds with MMO elements, allowing for hundreds of players to interact in shared social spaces and the vast Deep Desert. This ambitious server structure means that private server options won’t offer the same degree of control seen in games like Conan Exiles, but players will still have options for customizing their experience.

Private servers are available to rent at launch through third-party hosting companies: GPORTAL, Nitrado, and xREALM.
Each private server contains a full Hagga Basin map and is part of a larger World, allowing interaction with players from other private servers in the same World’s social hubs and Deep Desert.
Players can control certain settings, including:
- Disabling or customizing PvP security zones
- Disabling server taxation
- Turning off sandstorms
Servers can be named and -protected, but do not currently offer control s or character transfers.
Players can visit other private servers within their World by entering a server , and can even claim land as visitors—an option not available on official servers.
Server hosting is managed entirely by the third-party providers, including and pricing.

This approach preserves the core MMO features that distinguish Dune: Awakening from other survival games, but means private server s have less granular control compared to some genre peers. The development team plans to monitor player and may expand private server features in future updates.

Dune: Awakening is developed by Funcom, known for its work on survival games like Conan Exiles. The game aims to carve out its own space in the genre by merging survival mechanics with persistent, large-scale multiplayer worlds inspired by Frank Herbert’s iconic science fiction setting. Dune: Awakening costs $49.99 and has quite a bit of hype behind it with over 200,000 followers on Steam.

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