Dune: Spice Wars goes back to its strategy roots, gets its first gameplay trailer

I’ve got to be real with you: I don’t know anything about Dune. I know there are books that people like. And I know that the guy who was writing them died, so someone else had to finish them. I know David Lynch made a movie with Kyle MacLachlan in the ’80s that people are really weird about. And maybe there was another movie recently that was super good or something. Fans who actually know what they’re talking about will have even more Dune to look forward to, however, as the real-time strategy game Dune: Spice Wars has just received its first gameplay trailer and some details.

Dune: Spice Wars is a strategy game under development by Shiro Games and published by Funcom, a company that’s so fun that the word is in the name. As there’s a rather famous Dune strategy game from back in the ’90s, this sounds like a good move. As the name implies, the game will focus on spice trading, which is apparently a pretty big Dune thing, but don’t quote me on that. In the game, players are tasked with taking control of a house which will then put together a mining group on their planet. From then on, you get to work becoming the best spice company, like no one ever was.

Sugar, spice, and everything nice

The trailer for Dune: Spice Wars gives an explanation of the importance of spice trading alongside some fairly lovely visuals. We see a mining team traveling the sands before soldiers in the battle for spice domination come face to face to ensure that their house is the one that gets the good stuff. It looks like a fairly detailed, compelling real-time strategy game, although I can’t say how well it captures Dune. Again, there’s sand, though, which has gotta be pretty close. The game is set for release sometime this year, but there’s no specific window just yet, so stay tuned.