One of the biggest surprise announcements of The Game Awards 2021 was the reveal of Dune: Spice Wars, an RTS based on Frank Herbert's iconic sci-fi novels. Beyond its clear inspiration from 1992's Dune 2, what many view as the first modern RTS, little was said about the game. That's now changed, however, as developer Shiro Games has dropped a wide variety of new details regarding Dune: Spice Wars. That includes Shiro's plans for early release and future content rollout.To start, Shiro Games makes clear that it sees Dune: Spice Wars as both a real-time strategy game and a 4X game. It characterizes this by saying Dune: Spice Wars will feature "slower than typical" RTS gameplay, including the ability to pause and fast-forward. Further, it focuses on the key 4X areas of exploration, territory control, economic growth, and combat, as well as politics and spying. Despite that, Shiro says that the 4X elements won't detract from Dune: Spice Wars' RTS experience.For RTS players worried that this means Dune: Spice Wars won't be a base-building RTS, that's unfortunately correct. While Dune: Spice Wars will allow players to build up a base of operations, it won't feature building placement. Shiro describes it as Dune: Spice Wars featuring a "much larger scale" than a typical RTS. Suffice to say, the planet of Arakkis is very large and players will be managing territory much larger than most RTS games are framed in.
One other key reveal regarding Dune: Spice Wars' gameplay is that it will feature procedurally-generated maps. Maps will have settings for size, as well as in-game mechanics like sandworm activity, but will otherwise be entirely generated. Of course, locations within those maps will be authored, including key locations from the Dune novels.
As for how Dune: Spice Wars will be released, Shiro and publisher Funcom plan to utilize an Early Access format. That means that an early, thinner version of Dune: Spice Wars will be released on Steam first. Content will then be rolled out over time until Shiro considers the game complete. That said, Shiro says it plans to deliver a "very good" game on day one, with player feedback driving the direction of the game from there.
Current plans are to launch without major facets of the game, including multiplayer and a campaign. Those will instead be released later as part of Early Access for Dune: Spice Wars. The one thing Shiro says is not currently planned is mod support, though it's open to being persuaded otherwise. Expect to hear more about Dune: Spice Wars in the months to come.
Dune: Spice Wars releases in 2022 on PC.