Funcom delivers the successful launch of Dune: Awakening in South America with Gcore

Founded in 1993, Funcom is a leading developer and publisher of online multiplayer and open-world games. Known for its rich storytelling and immersive universes, Funcom has developed acclaimed titles like Conan Exiles, The Secret World, and Anarchy Online. With its latest and most ambitious project, Dune: Awakening, Funcom is building an expansive open-world multiplayer survival game on a massive scale set in the iconic sci-fi universe of Dune.

Launching Dune: Awakening with low-latency performance for South American players

In preparation for the global launch of Dune: Awakening, Funcom faced a critical challenge: delivering a smooth, high-performance multiplayer experience for players in South America, a region often underserved by traditional infrastructure providers.

With a large and passionate LATAM player base, the stakes were high. Funcom needed to deploy compute-intensive workloads capable of powering real-time gameplay and matchmaking with minimal latency, all while providing resilience against potential DDoS attacks during the launch window.

Choosing Gcore for high-frequency compute power and managed orchestration

To meet these infrastructure demands, Funcom partnered with Gcore to deploy:

• Bare Metal Servers configured with AMD Ryzen 9 9950x CPUs for high single-threaded performance
• Managed Kubernetes clusters to orchestrate scalable multiplayer backend services on bare metal servers
• Built-in advanced DDoS Protection to secure critical launch infrastructure

The robust presence of Gcore in Latin America, supported by its global backbone and edge PoPs, made it possible for Funcom to deliver a high-quality experience to South American players comparable to what’s typically available in North America or Europe.

The Gcore infrastructure in South America is purpose-built to support latency-sensitive workloads like online multiplayer gaming. With multi-terabit capacity in São Paulo, participation in IX.br (the region’s largest internet exchange), and private peering agreements with major ISPs such as Claro and TIM, Gcore ensures stable, low-latency connectivity across the region. Crucially, DDoS mitigation is handled locally, eliminating the need for long-haul traffic rerouting and enabling faster, more reliable protection at scale.

The ability to directly deploy high-frequency bare metal nodes in the region has been a cornerstone of our South American launch strategy. Gcore allows us to reach players in regions where performance at this level is not usually possible.

Stian Drageset, CFO & COO, Funcom

Guaranteeing smooth operations with Kubernetes and low-latency infrastructure

With Gcore Managed Kubernetes, Funcom was able to dynamically manage containers across a cluster of powerful bare metal nodes, crucial for maintaining game state, matchmaking, and multiplayer interactions in real time. This setup enables flexible scaling in response to player demand, whether it spikes on launch day or ramps up as more players join.

Thanks to Gcore’s managed services, our team can focus on game logic and player experience, not orchestration or hardware.

Rui Casais, CEO, Funcom

Proving performance at scale during beta—and beyond

Anticipation was already high leading up to the launch. During the invite-only beta weekend in May 2025, the game attracted nearly 40,000 concurrent players—a strong early signal of the momentum behind the title. Behind the scenes, Gcore supported Funcom with high-performance Bare Metal servers and Managed Kubernetes to provide uninterrupted performance at scale during this critical milestone. That success laid the groundwork for a smooth and stable full launch in South America.

Monitoring results post-launch

As Dune: Awakening prepared for its launch, Funcom and Gcore closely monitored infrastructure performance and prepared for a high-concurrency environment. Post-launch data included:

• Reached the top ten most-played games on Steam globally within 24 hours of launch, climbing to number two within the first week
• Peak of 142,000 concurrent players in the first couple of days, and 189,000 by the end of the week

Expanding into underserved gaming regions

This deployment showcases how Gcore’s infrastructure helps game studios expand into emerging regions like South America, where consistent low-latency, high-frequency compute has traditionally been harder to access.

South America is often seen as a “blue ocean” market in the gaming industry—vast, underserved, and perceived as difficult to serve due to infrastructure limitations. With a population of over 400 million, the region holds immense potential. Gcore makes it easy for publishers like Funcom to unlock that opportunity, delivering a seamless experience to players across LATAM without compromise.

Gcore’s ability to deliver high-frequency compute in South America gives us a real advantage in reaching players where latency and infrastructure have long been challenges for online multiplayer gaming.

Stian Drageset, CFO & COO, Funcom

Powering next-gen multiplayer survival games globally

By choosing Gcore Bare Metal servers and Managed Kubernetes, Funcom is positioned to deliver a high-performance multiplayer experience to players in South America and beyond. The flexibility of Gcore infrastructure ensures optimal resource usage, rapid scaling, and reliable DDoS protection—foundational components for a smooth multiplayer survival game launch.

Scale your multiplayer experience—everywhere

Looking to launch your next multiplayer title in regions others can’t reach? Gcore offers flexible, high-performance infrastructure tailored for real-time gaming. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you reach every corner of the globe.

Contact us