In a recent interview, Dune: Awakening Game Director Joel Bylos stated that internally, the team no longer considers the game a full-fledged MMO, although they initially described its genre as such during development.
During a conversation with FRVR, Bylos explained that defining the correct genre for Dune: Awakening proved challenging:
I think defining the genre of our game was one of the biggest challenges during development. We have an online server system that is quite complex compared to most survival games, and we wanted to have multiple maps… so we weren't entirely sure, and at some point, we started calling our game an “MMO” because we thought it would just be easier that way.
Over time, the developers' perception of Dune: Awakening changed. Bylos clarified that their game is significantly different from classic MMOs like World of Warcraft, which is particularly noticeable in the progression system — in WoW, the focus is on quests, while in Dune, players are driven forward by the crafting system:
Now I have a strong feeling that [Dune: Awakening] is not an MMO. Definitely not.
Dune: Awakening continues to enjoy a certain level of popularity. Free updates and premium add-ons are still being released for the game.
The trailer is available at the following link.