Look, let's be honest, Funcom is ready to throw you back into the sand—and this time, into the freeze—as the studio drops the free expansion, Blood and Ice, for its open-world survival game Dune: Awakening on December 1st across PC, PS5, and Xbox platforms.

The expansion takes you straight to the frozen northern region of Arrakis known as the Polar Sink, serving up roughly 35 hours of fresh survival adventure content. The Polar Sink features two distinct biomes: the tundra and the ice cap. Players kick off their journey in the tundra, where a wealthy water-supplying house defends its stronghold. Beyond that lies the heavily fortified ice cap, where getting your hands on ice is the ultimate objective.

Gear built to endure the scorching desert heat is going to need some serious upgrades to handle the bitter cold. Using resources found exclusively in the Polar Sink, players must craft the equipment required for survival. Ice harvested in the Polar Sink can be utilized to cool base equipment and boost production speeds, alongside the introduction of new vehicle modules, augments, and specialized traits.

In what the publisher calls a continuous push to support free updates, a brand-new cosmetic shop is also launching. The shop kicks off with rotating items like film-inspired outfits, with plans to make the entire catalog available permanently in future updates.

Right on the heels of the Blood and Ice expansion, players can dive into the Scourge event investigating a disease spreading across Arrakis, followed hot on its heels by the Water Crisis event. A brand-new events tab arriving with the expansion lets players track their event progress and rewards. Funcom plans to roll out events packed with fresh storylines and free rewards even more frequently moving forward.

The developer also pulled back the curtain on three heavily requested features. Offline single-player support lands this November, while January 2027 will bring the ability to copy characters from multiplayer servers to single-player, and from single-player to select private servers. Full cross-play support is also lined up for January 2027.

Funcom CEO Scott Junior stated, "There is still plenty of work left to do," adding that "in 2027, we have planned several massive free updates to expand Dune: Awakening with new locations, mechanics, and content to discover."

Dune: Awakening is available on Steam, PS5, Xbox, and Game Pass, with the Blood and Ice expansion set to drop for free across all platforms.