Earth & Beyond Founders' Federation now open

Westwood Studios has today announced that the Founders' Federation for Earth & Beyond has begun. The program, which was 2875835announced earlier this summer, has been created to reward the beta testers who have helped to shape the game's galaxy by allowing them to keep up to five characters from the beta test universe for use in the final game, which is scheduled to ship next week.

All player characters created before last weekend have since been deleted, but beta testers creating new characters now will get to keep them and will also receive a special decal to display on their in-game starships, letting other players know that they were among the first players to inhabit the galaxy.

There's still time to join the beta test before the game launches on September 24, and anyone doing so will automatically be invited to become a member of the Founders' Federation when they start playing the retail version, providing they do so before October 10.

Earth & Beyond is a massively multiplayer role-playing game in which players assume the role of starship captains and then explore, trade, and fight with thousands of others. The beta test for the game can be downloaded from the game's official site. For more information, check out our previous coverage of the game, and stay tuned for a special GameSpot Live video demonstration of Earth & Beyond starring Westwood's Louis Castle later this week.