Gamescom Opening Night Live producer and host Geoff Keighley has revealed that Funcom’s Dune: Awakening will be one of several games to be shown off live on-stage at the event, which is scheduled for August 20 at 11 AM Pacific. Keighley says Funcom will be showing off “an extended look” at gameplay for the upcoming open world survival MMO.

Several other titles have also been confirmed for Gamescom Opening Night Live so far, including Monster Hunter Wilds, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Civilization 7, and more. 

Dune: Awakening is in development for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. A release date for the title hasn’t yet been announced.

Metal: Hellsinger puts players in the shoes of The Unknown, slaying demons in Hell to some appropriately heavy metal beats. The main goal of the game is to confront and defeat the Red Judge so that The Unknown can retrieve their voice. The game features 8 levels, and music from artists like System of a Down’s Serj Tankian, Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe, Trivium’s Matt Heafy, and Arch enemy’s Alissa White-Gluz, among others.

The VR release of Metal: Hellsinger will maintain the game’s manic pace, and will have players jumping and shooting their way through hordes of hellspawn, using a plethora of different weapons in the process. Last year, Metal: Hellsinger also got its first paid DLC, Dream of the Beast. It is currently unknown whether this DLC will also be released for the VR release.

Metal: Hellsinger is currently available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out our review.

Along with the trailer, Dune: Awakening also got another video with Funcom creative director Joel Bylos, as well as cinematographer Greig Fraser talking about translating elements of the Dune setting from Dune Part 1 and 2 into video game form. Check out the video, dubbed Creating Worlds, from Book to Film to Game, below.

The last time Funcom spoke about Dune: Awakening back in June 2023, it described the five core pillars of the game—Survival, Politics and Intrigue, Infinite Exploration, Combined Arms Combat, and Expression and Customisation. These pillars combine to form the word SPICE.

Much like Funcom’s other survival game Conan: Exiles, players in Dune: Awakening will have to start out from nothing and build their bases from the ground up. Dune: Awakening doesn’t yet have a release date, but we do know that there’s a beta that players can sign up for on the official website. The game will be coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

For its console release, Dune: Spice Wars now has a new interface designed around playing the game on a TV with a controller. The new control scheme offers all the tools players would need to scheme and plot their way to victory over the world of Arrakis.

The Xbox Series X/S release date for Dune: Spice Wars was announced earlier this month. The console release of the game comes just a few months after its PC release, which in turn came after the game spent quite some time as an Early Access title on Steam.

Dune: Spice Wars features a campaign mode, as well as a Conquest Mode that allows players to take on the role of any of the Houses, as well as tweak different scenarios and battle it out on procedurally-generated maps. The game also features multiplayer, with options for 1v1, 2v2, and free-for-all matches for up to four players.

Perhaps the most significant is Persona 5 Tactica, Atlus’ turn-based tactics spinoff, which will be available on Game Pass (via console, cloud, and PC), on the day of its release later this week, November 17. Meanwhile, later in the month, subscribers will get two more games.

On November 28, Roll7 and Private Division’s acclaimed rollerskating shooter Rollerdrome will be added to Game Pass to go along with its Xbox release. On the same day, 4K strategy title Dune: Spice Wars will make its console debut, and will be available on Game Pass (via console and cloud) right from day one. It’s also been available to PC Game Pass subscribers for some time.

Available now on Steam and the Microsoft Store after exiting early access last September, the real-time strategy title takes place on Arrakis, with six Houses vying for supremacy and Spice. As with any 4X title, you can claim victory through war, politics or spies. Scouring the planet for Spice is important, but you must also deal with sandworms that outright devour armies.

Along with the campaign, there’s also Conquest Mode, where you can play as any House, tweak different scenarios and battle in procedurally generated maps. Multiplayer is also included, with 1v1, 2v2, and Free-For-All matches supporting up to four players, with extensive options for win conditions, storms, AI difficulty and much more.

The new House is artistic but influential, using their works to gain power over the Landsraad. Out-maneuvering them in the political sphere will be challenging, but you can always rely on military might and territory control to win.

Dune: Spice Wars features Conquest Mode with various scenarios and procedurally generated maps but also supports multiplayer modes like 1v1, 2v2 and Free For All. There are also tutorials in place to help new players learn the mechanics. It currently retails for $29.99, but after exiting early access, the price will increase to $34.99. If you want to get in on the action, now’s a good time to buy in.

The new trailer also gives us a great look at how Dune: Spice Wars has evolved since it originally launched in early access last year. It has seen a number of updates released for it over time, including the Line in the Sand update from way back in January, and even the ability to play online multiplayer.

Dune: Spice Wars puts players into the shoes of the leader of one of the Great Houses of the Imperium on the planet of Arrakis. Players will take part in different part of the Dune mythos, including espionage and spycraft, alongside making use of other RTS and 4X genre conventions to conquer the world of Arrakis and control the flow of spice.

Dune: Spice Wars is currently available on PC as an early access title on Steam.

Players can run guilds with tanks, sand bikes and more and come into conflict with each other. However, massive sandworms also lurk on the planet, and you’ll need to think fast to survive. Unlike most MMOs which rely on hot bars and cooldowns, Dune: Awakening’s combat is more “second-to-second and intense,” per game director Viljar Sommerbakk when speaking to PC Gamer.

You need to start from the ground up, not unlike Conan: Exiles (another Funcom survival MMO), but Dune: Awakening has its unique flavor (or spice, if you will). A release date hasn’t been revealed, but players can sign up for the beta here.

Some of the titles appearing include Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3 (which exits early access in August), 11 bit studios’ Frostpunk 2, a brand new game from Klei Entertainment, and Funcom’s Dune: Awakening. The publication also says that a “significant chunk” of the titles are “completely new reveals.”

Oddly enough, the PC Gaming Show will cause AI to deliver all the news, which it assured will “absolutely, definitely, 100% not backfire, implode,” etc. Whether this is a comedic bit for the show or an actual use of the technology remains to be seen.

The PC Gaming Show 2023 will air on YouTube, Twitch, Steam and more. Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.