Dune Awakening will have "no in-game monetization of any kind," devs reassure

Dune Awakening’s recent livestream has given fans a great deal of hope with regard to the game's monetization. As a buy-to-play game, there was certainly fear that the title would be loaded down with in-game monetization to help make a profit. However, according to the developers, that is not going to happen.

If you’re worried about some kind of battle pass, or something similar, that’s not in the cards for the Dune Awakening monetization system. There will be free updates to the game, and optional, paid DLC, but that's as far as the monetization system goes as of now.

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Dune Awakening is a buy-to-play game with no in-game monetization at all

When Dune Awakening launches, not only will it not launch in Early Access, but it also won’t contain frustrating in-game monetization. This is an issue that has plagued the online gaming community for some time now — whether it’s Battle Passes, expensive cosmetics, or even games that are purely pay-to-win — it’s refreshing to see that this won’t be the case for Funcom’s upcoming survival MMO.

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During the first Dune livestream, Natascha (Senior PR Manager), Ole Andreas (Lead Producer), and Jeff (World Director) answered a number of community questions. During this Q&A, it was stated that there would be “no in-game monetization of any kind”. That means no player boosts, no purchasing skins in-game, and no Battle Pass of any kind.

There is, however a Season Pass, but the developers highlighted this isn’t a monetization thing. This is simply the way Steam categorizes groups of DLC purchases, so they call it a Season Pass as well. There will likely be paid, optional DLC updates every 3 months or so, and you can also get them in a bundle — hence the Season Pass.

But if you’re worried about a bunch of extra microtransactions, such as what launched with Diablo Immortal, don’t worry about that.

Of course, things could change in the future, but we’re hoping that Funcom sticks to their word, and keeps all the frustrating in-game monetization away from this title. That type of monetization scheme is one of the more frustrating things to see in a retail-priced video game, especially online ones.

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Check out our other Dune Awakening guides and features

• All notable character creation options in Dune Awakening
• Dune Awakening: All Starting Classes and Skills (known so far)
• Dune Awakening’s Coriolis storms will act as a weekly map reset