Funcom announced that the free Blood and Ice expansion for Dune: Awakening will launch December 1 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox. The update sends players to the frozen north of Arrakis, where a new Polar Sink survival map replaces the familiar deep desert heat loop with a cold-weather survival challenge. The details come from Funcom’s official announcement published October 29.
The expansion follows a busy year for the survival MMO. Funcom rebuilt the endgame, released three DLCs, and brought the game to consoles alongside single-player and the conclusion of Book One. More than one million new players have joined since the console launch. Dune: Awakening is available now on Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox, and with Game Pass. The game launched on Xbox Series X|S and Game Pass earlier this year, which widened the player base before the next update.
Blood and Ice and the Polar Sink
The Polar Sink is a new survival map where cold replaces heat as the failure state. In the existing deep desert, players spend much of their time protecting against extreme heat. In the Polar Sink, they fight the cold instead. Desert survival gear will not be enough there, so players need to upgrade equipment, gather new resources, and change how they move through the region.
The map has two distinct biomes. Players begin in the tundra, where wealthy water shipper families have built lavish strongholds. Conditions there are more manageable than the ice cap, but the families will not welcome interference. Beyond the tundra is the heavily guarded ice cap, the water shipper families’ most prized territory. Finding a way inside and securing access to its resources is one of the main objectives.
Funcom describes Blood and Ice as a return to ground-level survival. Traversal, temperature management, and combat all feed progression. The Polar Sink contains resources found exclusively there, and those resources are needed to craft new survival gear. Once a player reaches the ice cap, they can harvest ice. That ice cools base equipment and speeds up production. The expansion adds around 35 hours of new progression, plus new vehicle modules, augments, and specialization traits. Players can return to the Polar Sink for resources, with future updates adding more reasons to revisit.
Cosmetic store and free updates
Funcom is introducing a cosmetics store to help support continued development and free updates. The store sells optional cosmetic items only: outfits, vehicle variants, and additional ways to customize bases. The first version will feature a rotating selection of items. As the store grows, Funcom plans to make the full catalogue available at all times.
The store opens with recognizable looks taken directly from the Dune films, timed to the theatrical release of Dune: Part Three this December. Unlike the three paid DLCs Funcom shipped across 2026, the Blood and Ice expansion and its map are free. The optional store funds the ongoing work, and the catalogue stays cosmetic, so power and survival gear remain earned in-game.
In-game events
The Scourge is the latest event and tasks players with investigating a disease spreading across Arrakis. Shortly after Blood and Ice releases, Funcom will add Water Crisis, an event where players fight for scarce water supplies and work to end the shortage. Funcom calls these the biggest in-game events yet, with new gameplay and locations. A dedicated Events tab will be added to the main menu with the Blood and Ice expansion so players can track progress and rewards. All events can be completed in single-player and multiplayer.
Roadmap: offline, copying, and cross-play
Before the expansion, offline single-player arrives in November 2026. That will let players run Dune: Awakening without an internet connection. In January 2027, character copying and full cross-play arrive. Character copying lets a player copy a character from multiplayer servers to single-player, and from single-player to select private servers or self-hosted servers on PC. The destination server must allow copied characters. Full cross-play will allow players across supported platforms to play together. Funcom positioned offline single-player as one of the most requested features from the community.
- November 2026: offline single-player
- December 1, 2026: free Blood and Ice expansion on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox
- January 2027: character copying
- January 2027: full cross-play
- 2027: major free updates with new locations, mechanics, and content, more events, and quality-of-life improvements
Offline single-player detaches progression from a live server for the first time in an always-online MMO. Cross-play lets the Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox populations that grew after the console launch and Game Pass deal share servers. Character copying connects the two, but it is opt-in per server, so it is not a universal server-hop.
For 2027, Funcom CEO Scott Junior said, “We’re far from done. We have ambitious plans for Dune: Awakening in 2027, with several major free updates that will expand the game with new locations, mechanics, and content to discover.”
