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Subscribe to the world's #1 PC gaming mag Try a single issue or save on a subscription Issues delivered straight to your door or device From£35.99Subscribe now Essential Hardware Abiotic Factor Dune: Awakening PC Gaming Show Recommended reading Survival & Crafting One Dune: Awakening player 'will not bend the knee' to hackers laying waste to ornithopters—'I am personally on their hit list now' Survival & Crafting Even the beginner zone in Dune: Awakening isn't safe from sandworm-manipulating griefers anymore Dune: Awakening studio says sorry for accidentally wiping a bunch of stuff in the last patch, promises to replace everything by the end of the week Dune: Awakening live coverage: Server status, launch info, and all the latest news Funcom says its working on 'a bunch of changes' for Dune: Awakening PvP after player calls out the survival MMO's 'biggest issue' Survival & Crafting Dune: Awakening's stabby stunlock PvP exploit is being fixed, says Funcom: 'We've got this covered' Dune: Awakening isn't even officially out yet and it already has almost 100,000 players Dune: Awakening Dune: Awakening 'temporarily' disables Steam Family Sharing, potentially through the end of 2025: 'We have unfortunately seen this feature abused frequently' Christopher Livingston 25 July 2025 "We are actively working on changes that will allow us to re-enable the system as soon as possible." When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Funcom) Survival MMO Dune: Awakening got off to a strong start in June, but here at the tail end of July it's gotten stuck in a bit of quicksand. Even making changes to the controversial chopper-heavy endgame hasn't stopped recent Steam reviews from sliding to "Mixed," and despite several patches to squash exploits and hackers, cheating and griefing remains a problem. A bit more bad news arrived today: Steam Family Sharing for Dune: Awakening has been switched off. "We would like to share a quick update on cheats and exploits and inform you that we’re temporarily disabling Family Sharing," publisher Funcom posted on Steam and Discord, adding that it relates to the effort to prevent cheating: "We have unfortunately seen this feature abused frequently." Related Articles One Dune: Awakening player 'will not bend the knee' to hackers laying waste to ornithopters—'I am personally on their hit list now' Even the beginner zone in Dune: Awakening isn't safe from sandworm-manipulating griefers anymore Dune: Awakening studio says sorry for accidentally wiping a bunch of stuff in the last patch, promises to replace everything by the end of the week That's gonna be a pretty big blow to players who have had access to Dune: Awakening through sharing over Steam from family members (and let's face it, pals), and it sounds like the disabling of this feature could last quite a long while—as in months, or potentially even until 2026. "We apologize to our players who legitimately used this feature," Funcom said. "We are actively working on changes that will allow us to re-enable the system as soon as possible. While we don’t have an ETA to share at the moment, we are aiming to implement those changes within this year. We will let you know as soon as we have a date. Funcom didn't specify what sorts of exploits we being used by players on Family Sharing, though members of the Discord speculate it could be by using alt accounts to access Landsraad vendors on servers controlled by the opposite faction, to camp chests with high-tier loot and nab it when the respawn timer expires, or enjoy twice the amount of fiefs and vehicles as normally allowed to single character. As always, it sucks that people using a feature as it's intended will be the ones hurt most by it being disabled. Cheaters will always find another way to exploit, but a lot of innocent players have just had their days ruined. The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. "In addition to fixing the causes [of cheating], we have also taken some direct action against players who used exploits, banning hundreds of players and removing large amounts of exploited Solaris from the game," Funcom said. "These efforts are currently ongoing: our investigations continue and our banhammer has more work to do." Best gaming rigs 2025All our favorite gear 👉Check out our list of guides👈 1. Best gaming laptop: Razer Blade 16 2. Best gaming PC: HP Omen 35L 3. Best handheld gaming PC: Lenovo Legion Go S SteamOS ed. 4. Best mini PC: Minisforum AtomMan G7 PT 5. Best VR headset: Meta Quest 3 Christopher Livingston Social Links Navigation Senior Editor Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name. One Dune: Awakening player 'will not bend the knee' to hackers laying waste to ornithopters—'I am personally on their hit list now' Even the beginner zone in Dune: Awakening isn't safe from sandworm-manipulating griefers anymore Dune: Awakening studio says sorry for accidentally wiping a bunch of stuff in the last patch, promises to replace everything by the end of the week Dune: Awakening live coverage: Server status, launch info, and all the latest news Funcom says its working on 'a bunch of changes' for Dune: Awakening PvP after player calls out the survival MMO's 'biggest issue' Dune: Awakening's stabby stunlock PvP exploit is being fixed, says Funcom: 'We've got this covered' Latest in MMO World of Warcraft Classic player loses world first race by 2 minutes and 22 seconds after someone decided to verify it just in case 23 years after launch, Final Fantasy 11 is suspending character creation on its most popular server as it buckles beneath the weight of player congestion Guild Wars 2's sixth expansion is taking players to an island paradise this October, with beachside player housing and a major addition to buildcrafting WoW continues to eat FF14's lunch with its housing system on paper—says it'll just make more neighbourhoods if they're full, and you can have private guild ones, too Dune: Awakening studio says sorry for accidentally wiping a bunch of stuff in the last patch, promises to replace everything by the end of the week After 3 years of trying, Lord of the Rings Online's 'Great Hobbit Run' ends in confused success as a mob of low-level players gets lost inside Mount Doom and decides it's close enough: 'Sauron can kiss my butt!' 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