A buggy patch accidentally turned PvE zones in Dune: Awakening into PvP areas – now Funcom is apologizing and promising comprehensive improvements.
Imagine you’ve set up your base in what you thought was the safest corner of the desert world of Arrakis. You spend hours gathering resources, crafting equipment and feel protected from enemy players in the PvE area. And then, from one moment to the next, all hell breaks loose.
A patch goes live and your peaceful oasis becomes a battlefield. Your base is looted, vehicles explode, and your hard-earned equipment is lost forever.
This exact disaster happened on July 7, 2025 in Dune: Awakening. A faulty patch accidentally converted PvE zones into PvP areas. A nightmare for every player and a PR disaster for the developers.
PvE becomes PvP: a mistake with consequences
What happened? Funcom had planned to change the layout of the endgame area Deep Desert. The change was actually only supposed to take place with the next reset, but due to an internal misunderstanding, large parts of Deep Desert suddenly became PvP-capable.
Players promptly lost bases, vehicles and more – not through any fault of their own, but due to a simple patch error. The developers are remorseful in an open letter:
We are incredibly sad that this happened and want to acknowledge that we should have handled this better. We have changed our internal processes as a result and will be better in the future.
Funcom also promises to compensate all affected players. By the end of the week, the lost items, vehicle parts and materials will be refunded via the in-game rewards system.
But the patch glitch is just the tip of the iceberg: In their open letter, the developers also talk about the ongoing problems with exploits and cheaters – from stolen vehicles and item duplication to insta-kill attacks and missile spam from ornithopters, it’s pretty much all there.
The good news: Funcom has a zero-tolerance policy: “We have already banned several hundred players and will continue to crack down.” A dedicated team is exclusively responsible for hunting down hackers and securing the server infrastructure.
Additional security measures are to be implemented in the upcoming patches – including penetration tests and a revision of the item system to finally put an end to duplicates.
Another ongoing issue: the loss of vehicles and other items due to bugs. Especially at the time of launch, there was a lack of tools to properly track and reimburse losses.
However, the support team is now working with improved tools to process even older cases. Anyone who has lost a vehicle due to a bug should continue to submit a ticket. Patience is required, however, as the backlog is huge.
Despite all the current problems, the team remains combative and optimistic: “We have lots of exciting things planned for Dune: Awakening and are looking forward to the future.”