Dune: Awakening developer Funcom announced Wednesday that it’s laying off employees months after the game was released in June 2025. Dune: Awakening sold more than 1 million copies as of June, something that made it Funcom’s “fastest-selling game ever,” the company said at the time.
The company told GamesIndustry.biz in a statement that Dune: Awakening is the company’s “biggest release” in its 32 year history.
A Funcom representative told GamesIndustry.biz that Dune: Awakening has “shown incredible potential” and that the “right way forward is to focus our internal resources on releasing new content, features, and enhancements.”
“The transition from development to long-term live operation, while also building towards a major console release next year, will require us to restructure our teams and focus our resources from across projects and studios,” the representative said. “Unfortunately, this also means having to say goodbye to cherished colleagues.”
Dune: Awakening is expected to be released on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X in 2026.
Funcom hasn’t said how many employees are impacted. Reached for comment, a Funcom representative referred Game Developer to the GamesIndustry.biz story.
The Oslo, Norway-based Funcom is owned by Chinese megacompany Tencent. In 2019, Funcom announced that Tencent acquired 29% of its shares, becoming the studio’s largest shareholder. In 2020, Tencent announced it intended to acquire full ownership of the studio’s shares.
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