Frontier Developments announces a December 15th launch date for the Horizons expansion for Elite Dangerous, their space combat game. They celebrate the news with this new trailer showing off the planetary landings that are a highlight of the new release, while the announcement actually explains Horizons is a "season" of expansions:

Frontier Developments plc (AIM: FDEV) will release Elite Dangerous: Horizons, the new season of expansions for their incredible massively multiplayer space epic Elite Dangerous, on December 15 for PC. Elite Dangerous: Horizons is currently in beta with thousands of players venturing deep into the game’s 1:1 recreation of the Milky Way to discover and explore billions of star systems and head to planetary surfaces for the first time.

Players who pre-order the Elite Dangerous: Horizons season of expansions will receive immediate access to Elite Dangerous, and can begin playing TODAY.

Elite Dangerous: Horizons is the new season of expansions for Elite Dangerous, with updates coming throughout 2016. When Elite Dangerous: Horizons goes live on December 15, the first major expansion will be the highly anticipated ‘Planetary Landings,’ which allows players to discover and explore billions of full-size airless worlds throughout the galaxy, each simulated to exacting detail by the game’s Stellar Forge.

Following Planetary Landings, additional updates will come online in 2016, including:

• Loot and Crafting, unlocking a world of customization options and adding new value and meaning to every action.
• Multicrew, allowing teams of players to assume roles aboard the same ship.
• Commander Creation, giving a unique appearance to players’ in-game avatars.
• Ship-Launched Fighters, allowing larger spacecraft to carry their own short-range fighter ships for attack and defense.
• New Missions and Ships, expanding the already massive amount of playable content.
• New Close Quarter Combat (CQC) Arenas, providing additional challenges to prove multiplayer superiority