The first, grandiose trailer for Dune: Awakening fibbed about one thing. You are not allowed to ride on sandworms in the survival MMO. At least for now.

It”s the ultimate show-off move: The Fremen people from the Dune universe like to ride around on the giant sandworms to get from A to B quickly on the desert planet Arrakis.

Actually, we thought this extremely cool manoeuvre would also be available in Funcom”s faithful game adaptation Dune: Awakening . But as GlobalESportNews has now learned, the spectacular render trailer for the survival MMO promised more on this point than the finished game delivers. At least for now.

In case you don”t remember, at minute 01:02 the nameless protagonist gets out his climbing axes and then jumps on a giant worm breaking out of the sand:

Can sandworms be ridden in Dune: Awakening?

The trick is described in the books by Frank Herbert and also appears in the “Dune” film by Denis Villeneuve (2021). Dune: Awakening, however, omits just that: You cannot climb onto the backs of the mighty beasts in the survival MMO. Instead, you travel on foot, in vehicles and in the air with ornithopters.

What”s not in there, you can read below. If you prefer to look at colourful pictures, we have a screenshot gallery with new impressions for you:

This is what Funcom told us about the sandworms

We confronted creative director Joel Bylos with the sandworm question. His answer: The render trailer represents the ambition of the team and should give a feeling of how the MMO will feel later on. The video shows “the dream”.

The current reality, however, is that sandworm riding will “probably only find its way into the game after launch”. Incidentally, there is no release date yet.

In any case, Bylos sees it as an end-game feature for experienced players and their high-level characters: should sandworm riding be available early on, it would be “too easy for players in the beginning” and Funcom wants to emphasise the survival aspect of (over)living in the desert.

Speaking of which, since we”re sitting so comfortably together: Will there actually be an option to take apart the sandworms like a raid boss in the course of the game? Developer Bylos: “You can”t fight them. But you can distract them.” Distract yes, distract no.