Descent: Underground will bring the frenetic and pulse-pounding gaming experience back and add upgraded gameplay and features including Voxel technology, customizable ships, team and individual play, changeable maps, special weapons and upgrades, and so much more!

Descent: Underground will offer a distinctive gameplay style that gives players the ability to pit their flying skills against players around the world. Imagine fighting with 10, 20, 30 or more people all battling and acquiring minerals to keep the people on earth alive for one more day!

Descent: Underground is a six-degrees-of-freedom, first-person-vehicle shooter set in the asteroid fields between Mars and Jupiter around three-hundred years into the future. Giant corporations have replaced national governments and have taken to space in a gold rush of mining operations. The flight and combat skills of their pilots help dominate enemy companies and pilots become heroes as their battles are broadcast back to earth for fans to cheer on their favorites.

At 11AM Eastern (1500 UTC) today, Descendent Studios is hosting a Twitch livestream and releasing a playable Early Access version only six months after their successful Kickstarter campaign. The current version includes three ship classes, five map and game mode combinations, and several diverse weapons. All crowdfunding backers with game packages can use their DescendentStudios.com accounts to request a playable Steam Early Access key.

Over the course of the next several months Early Access players will be able to play the game and have their feedback integrated into the project. As a sign of the studio’s commitment to transparency and community development, players are being encouraged to stream, record, and share their playtests with other gamers around the world.

“Fully testing and balancing a richly-featured multiplayer and single player game requires a lot of players,” said Descendent Studios CEO Eric Peterson. “Steam Early Access gives us the chance to bring more people into the game at a crucial stage of development and get their feedback, which we plan to incorporate into the final game.”

Peterson also highlighted the company’s commitment to fans in a business model announcement: “In response to a broad cross-section of our community, we’ve also decided to move away from the micro-transactions model we had discussed during our Kickstarter. Once we leave Early Access, any future content will be bundled into larger expansions.” Peterson continued, “Fans have spoken and we listened, ‘buy once, play forever’ is the course they wanted, and one we fully embrace.”

Key Features:

• Multiplayer shooter action in a full six degrees of freedom
• A variety of customizable ships and roles suit every play style
• Individual and team game modes for multiplayer
• Community-driven development w/ weekly video streams
• Mine for resources, power-ups, and to locate hidden tunnels
• Prove your prowess with rankings, achievements, and leaderboards
• Singleplayer storyline missions