When confronted with a new MMO where the best blueprints and resources are hidden in a sprawling and deadly PvP zone, a lot of players have one important question: "So, what if I'm not into PvP?"

Rest assured, you'll still be able to visit the 'deep desert' endgame zone of Dune: Awakening. According to Funcom, as shown in today's livestream, while the deep desert is almost entirely PvP, there is a sizeable PvE-only area where you won't have to worry about fighting other players.

"Behind the shield wall, there's also PvE elements here," creative director Joel Bylos said on the livestream while showing footage of a guild of players flying in ornithopters across the initial area of Dune: Awakening's deep desert. "So there are things like shipwrecks that you can raid, there are ecolabs behind [the shield wall]," he said.

"I know people are really worried about doing PvP," Bylos said. "There is a whole section here, it's 24 kilometers long where you can actually go and do the PvE part."

The deep desert is where you'll find the biggest spice deposits to harvest, as well as control points to claim and fight over and new blueprints to build from or sell. Every week a massive sandstorm completely rewrites the geography and shuffles up the locations—even player bases built in the deep desert get erased on a weekly basis. It's not a friendly place, but at least there's a pocket of space where on top of everything else, you don't have to worry about getting ganked by guilds.

Dune: Awakening executive producer Scott Junior also talked about PvE in the deep desert during the livestream. "It was important for us [to include a PvE zone], so that people that are scared of PvP or reluctant to get engaged with it, that they had a place in the deep desert that they would go to without instantly getting killed" by other players, Junior said.

You can watch the full livestream here: Bylos' comments about deep desert PvE start at around 1:19:40, Juniors start about 1:16:00.

The Elden Ring Nightreign release time is almost upon us as FromSoftware's new co-op-focused action RPG is set to launch this week.

Although it carries forward the Elden Ring name, Nightreign is set to be a very different experience from 2022's massive open-world behemoth. This time around, FromSoftware hopes you'll have a couple of buddies by your side to take on roguelike sequences of battles against new and returning foes.

While Nightreign currently stands as FromSoftware's lowest-rated game in seven years on Metacritic, it still sounds like there'll be plenty of fun to be had alongside your fellow Nightfarers. In our Elden Ring Nightreign review, we gave the game three-and-a-half stars out of five, praising it as "a surprisingly well-executed roguelike that melds well with the core of Elden Ring and even builds on it with a refreshingly rapid pace and spectacular new bosses."

And there's not long to wait now. If you're buying Elden Ring Nightreign digitally, it's worth noting that it's already available to pre-load ahead of its launch in your region across PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC. So, if you want to ensure you're ready to dive in as soon as possible, be sure to set it downloading in advance.

As for the actual release times, they tend to differ a bit between the PC and console releases, so read closely.

Elden Ring Nightreign release time

• 3pm PDT on May 29 on PC (9pm PDT on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One)
• 6pm EDT on May 29 on PC (May 30 at 12am EDT on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One)
• 11pm BST on May 29 on PC (May 30 at 12am BST on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One)
• 12am CEST on May 30 on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One

Generally speaking, PC players can expect to get into the game a bit sooner than console owners, although the head start you'll get depends on where you live. Again, we're already within the 48-hour pre-load window, so don't forget to start downloading Nightreign as soon as you can if you're not waiting for a physical copy to arrive.

Could Elden Ring Nightreign have what it takes to be one of the best co-op games?