In the survival game, Paul Atreides was never born and the aliens have disappeared
Dune: Awakening – Story Cinematic (The Vision of Paul Atreides)
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It's not easy to adapt a fictional property – The Lord of the Rings, or the DC Universe – into a massively multiplayer online game, or any kind of live game. Many have failed. The demands of a set canon are rarely compatible with an evolving online world, or a universe where thousands of players live their own hero's journeys.
Funcom knows this: The Norwegian developer has been making MMOs since 2001's Anarchy Online, including a licensed venture, Age of Conan. So in order to survive MMO Dune: Awakening, Funcom, Frank Herbert's estate and Legendary (producers of the Dune movies) decided to do something very clever: change the Dune timeline and establish their own alternate history of Arrakis.
