Dune: Spice Wars Continues A Long-Running Strategy Tradition

We got our first look at Dune: Spice Wars this evening, and the game is clearly looking to follow-up on a long-established claim of success in the strategy genre.

The new trailer is mostly atmospheric, and we hear a lot of place and character names that firmly entrench the new game in the Dune fiction. As the camera pans out from a scene on Arrakis, we see a giant hand holding a portion of the planet, sand slipping from its fingers.

The game’s official site has more detail to offer, promising that Dune: Spice Wars is a real-time strategy game with 4X elements. The game is being developed by Shiro Games, the team behind the survival game called Northgard.

In the new Spice Wars game, players take charge of a faction vying for control of Arakkis, the only place in the universe where Spice can be found, a substance that can expand consciousness and allow for space travel across vast distances. Of course, players can take control of familiar factions like Atreides and Harkonnen, but it sounds like other factions are an option as well. The game is also promising a variety of mechanics and ways to aim for victory, including subterfuge, politics, growth of economy, or straight-up warfare. The game boasts 4X dynamics in real-time, as players will explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate while they seek control of the vast desert planet.

Dune: Spice Wars is coming to early access first to help further development of the project, and the first chance to try the game is on the way in 2022.

Dune is experiencing a particularly potent resurgence at the moment thanks to the new and successful film, and this first glimpse of the new game looks promising.