‘In order to give us the most freedom to take the IP into military ground combat realm, we decided to have Dune II take place thousands of years prior to the timeline of the books,’ says Joe. ‘This freed us from having to follow the plot of the book, while also keeping us clear of conflict with the Dune game being created by Cryo. We could create our own path since there wasn’t any game like it at the time.’
Wait, it was supposed to take place centuries before the books!? "That just raises further questions!" Regardless, this making of tale of real-time strategy precursor Dune II is a great read.