Funcom Layoffs Mark a New Phase for Dune: Awakening and Conan Exiles
The Funcom layoffs mark a significant turning point for the Norwegian developer, which is restructuring its organisation to focus on the long-term operation and expansion of Dune: Awakening and Conan Exiles. The company is moving away from the large production structure required to build its biggest game to date, while preparing for a leadership transition that will see CEO Rui Casais leave by the end of 2026.
The restructuring comes as Dune: Awakening transitions from full-scale development to live operations. Although the survival game represents a major milestone for Funcom, the studio now faces a different challenge: maintaining a long-term content strategy without retaining the entire workforce assembled during production.
According to MMORPG.com’s report on Funcom’s restructuring, the company has not disclosed the number of employees affected by the cuts. The announcement nevertheless makes its priorities clear: concentrate resources on its two main live games and adapt the organisation to their ongoing needs.
Why Funcom Is Restructuring After Its Biggest Game Production
Dune: Awakening was the largest project in Funcom’s history, requiring years of development and substantial resources. Building a persistent survival experience on the scale of Arrakis demanded a different production structure from the one needed to maintain the game after launch.
That distinction is at the heart of the current restructuring. During full production, teams must create the world, systems, progression, missions and technical foundations that make a major release possible. After launch, the emphasis shifts towards updates, additional content, balancing, technical support and keeping the community engaged.
These responsibilities remain significant, but they do not necessarily require the same workforce or organisational structure as the original production.
Funcom’s position highlights a difficult problem for developers of large live-service games. A successful launch does not eliminate the need for investment; it changes where that investment must go. Studios have to maintain a consistent flow of improvements and new content while ensuring that their operating costs remain sustainable.
The company is therefore attempting to align its workforce with the next stage of Dune: Awakening. However, the number of jobs being cut remains unknown, leaving the full human and operational impact of the restructuring unclear.
Dune: Awakening Enters Its Long-Term Operations Phase
The future of Dune: Awakening remains central to Funcom’s plans. Rather than treating the release as the end of the development process, the studio is preparing to support and expand the game over the long term.
Players can follow the game’s continuing development through the official Dune: Awakening news page, which documents updates and additions to the survival experience.
The transition is particularly important because live-service games depend on more than their initial sales performance. Their long-term prospects also rely on meaningful updates, technical stability and the ability to give players reasons to return.
Funcom must now organise its teams around those demands. A smaller or differently structured workforce could help the company concentrate its resources on ongoing support, but the outcome will depend on how effectively it manages production priorities and future content.
The company has not indicated that its commitment to Dune: Awakening is ending. On the contrary, continued support and expansion are at the centre of its stated strategy. The unanswered question is how the restructuring will affect the scale and pace of that work.
Conan Exiles Remains a Pillar of Funcom’s Strategy
Alongside Dune: Awakening, Conan Exiles will remain a major priority. Released in 2018, the survival game has established a long-running audience and gives Funcom an existing title to support while its newer production moves into its next phase.
The studio has also continued investing in the game through Conan Exiles Enhanced. The official Conan Exiles website provides updates on the game’s continuing development and its wider community.
Keeping Conan Exiles at the centre of the strategy gives Funcom two established games with different histories and development needs. However, it also concentrates the company’s operational focus around a relatively narrow portfolio.
That approach could make resource allocation more straightforward, but it creates a clear dependency: both games must continue to justify investment through their ability to retain and engage players. If either title struggles to sustain its audience, Funcom could have less flexibility than a developer with a broader range of active productions.
For now, the company’s stated intention is to keep expanding both games rather than diverting its resources towards an entirely new large-scale production.
Rui Casais Leaves After 22 Years at Funcom
The restructuring also coincides with a major leadership change. Rui Casais, who has spent 22 years at Funcom and served as CEO for 11 years, is expected to leave the company by the end of 2026.
His departure closes a lengthy period during which Funcom expanded its operations, developed new projects and strengthened its position around established intellectual properties. Casais has also overseen the company during its relationship with Tencent and its increased investment in large-scale game development.
Scott Junior, Funcom’s current chief product officer and an executive producer on Dune: Awakening, is set to succeed him. His experience with the company’s products provides continuity as Funcom moves into a different operational phase.
However, taking over during a restructuring presents a particular challenge. Junior will need to manage the transition from production to live operations, maintain the teams responsible for both games and determine how Funcom can continue delivering content with a changed organisational structure.
The change is therefore more than a routine executive succession. It places new leadership at the centre of a strategic reset whose consequences will extend beyond the immediate job cuts.
Previous Layoffs and the Closure of The Outsiders
The latest Funcom layoffs also follow a difficult period of organisational changes. In October 2025, the company carried out another round of job cuts following the launch of Dune: Awakening. Funcom also closed The Outsiders, the studio known for developing Metal: Hellsinger.
These events provide important context for the latest announcement. The company is not adjusting its workforce for the first time since the launch of its major survival game. Instead, the current restructuring appears to continue the process of adapting its organisation to the realities of post-launch development.
For employees, repeated restructuring creates uncertainty about the stability of teams and the future of projects. For players, the central concern is whether these changes will affect the frequency, ambition or quality of future updates.
Funcom has not provided enough detail to establish the precise consequences for individual teams or development schedules. It would therefore be premature to conclude that the cuts will necessarily reduce the quality of either game. Equally, the company’s commitment to continued support does not guarantee that every previous production capacity can be maintained.
Tencent’s Broader Strategy Adds Another Layer
Funcom’s restructuring also takes place within the wider context of Tencent’s international gaming portfolio. Over the past 18 months, Tencent has taken a more assertive approach to its holdings, with sales and changes involving companies such as Splash Damage, Bulkhead and Secret Mode.
The reported sale of Splash Damage to private equity investors in September 2025 is one example of that broader shift. These transactions do not establish that every Tencent-owned studio will follow the same path, but they illustrate the changing environment in which developers must justify their strategic direction and operating costs.
Tencent executive Yong-yi Zhu has described service games as part of Funcom’s DNA. That perspective aligns with the company’s decision to concentrate on Dune: Awakening and Conan Exiles, both of which depend on continued support beyond their initial releases.
Still, Funcom’s situation should be assessed on its own terms. Its restructuring is directly linked to the transition away from the peak production phase of Dune: Awakening. Tencent’s wider portfolio decisions provide context, but they do not by themselves prove that the changes at Funcom were imposed by its parent company.
Funcom’s Intellectual Property Portfolio Extends Beyond Two Games
The company’s focus on Dune: Awakening and Conan Exiles does not mean its wider intellectual property portfolio has disappeared. Funcom has invested in properties that could offer opportunities across games and other forms of entertainment.
The company’s history and portfolio, outlined on its official About Us page, include Conan and properties such as Solomon Kane and Mutant: Year Zero. Its subsidiary Heroic Signatures manages intellectual property activities around several of these franchises.
Funcom’s acquisition of the Conan rights through Cabinet Group in 2025 further strengthened the importance of that franchise to the business. Owning intellectual property can create long-term opportunities, but developing those opportunities requires investment, planning and teams capable of turning the underlying properties into products.
That is where the current strategy becomes particularly relevant. By concentrating its immediate resources on two existing games, Funcom is prioritising ongoing operations over the demands of maintaining a peak-sized production organisation. Whether that focus eventually creates room for new projects or adaptations remains uncertain.
What the Funcom Layoffs Mean for the Company’s Future
The Funcom layoffs expose the difficult balance between ambitious game production and sustainable live operations. Building Dune: Awakening required a substantial team and years of work, but the structure needed to create a game is not necessarily the structure needed to operate it for years after release.
By concentrating on Dune: Awakening and Conan Exiles, Funcom is choosing a clearer operational direction. The appointment of Scott Junior and the departure of Rui Casais add another layer of change at a time when the company is redefining its priorities.
The strategy may help Funcom focus its resources, but important questions remain unanswered: how many employees will lose their jobs, how the changes will affect development teams, and whether the company can maintain its ambitions for both games with its new structure.
For players, the key measure will be what happens next. Funcom has committed to supporting and expanding its two main titles, but the success of this restructuring will ultimately depend on whether it can deliver on that promise while building a sustainable future for the studio.
