End of Abyss: Twin-stick Metroidvania Arrives Oct. 1, 2026

Section 9 Interactive, a Malmö studio founded by former leads from Tarsier Studios, will release End of Abyss for Xbox Series X|S on Oct. 1, 2026. Epic Games Publishing will handle distribution and the game has a listed retail price of $29.99. A hands-on demo was shown at Summer Game Fest: Play Days.

End of Abyss places players in a dark underground facility as Cel, a young combat technician wearing a large spherical helmet. The demo focused on an industrial section where the objective was to find and activate three power cores to restart a reactor.

The game uses a twin-stick control scheme with the left stick for movement and the right stick for 360-degree aiming. Players start with a rechargeable energy pistol and can find limited-ammo weapons such as a shotgun, along with flares and grenades. The controller face buttons provide a dodge roll and a limited-use healing ability that replenishes at save pods scattered through the map.

Exploration follows Metroidvania design: players must find keys, unlock doors, backtrack through newly accessible routes and scan objects to update an on-screen map. Materials collected from enemies and the environment can be spent at crafting stations to make ammo, equipment and permanent upgrades.

Combat combines fast movement with weapons that have multiple use modes. The pistol can be charged for a stronger shot that temporarily restricts firing, and the grenade input supports both short tosses and longer throws depending on whether the button is tapped or held. The shotgun provides knockback for crowd control. The demo showed combat that emphasized dodging, aiming and tactical use of limited resources, including an encounter cleared by kiting enemies and using a grenade to eliminate several foes at once.

Section 9 was founded by brothers Mattias and Marcus Ottval and Gustaf Heinerwall, all of whom served in lead roles at Tarsier Studios on titles including Little Nightmares and Reanimal. The studio cited classic science-fiction horror films as aesthetic references. “We like the same kind of things, and it’s very much the things we grew up with, like the Alien movies, ‘The Thing,’” Mattias Ottval, a co-founder, noted.

Section 9 positions End of Abyss as the studio’s debut title and says it was developed by a small team in Malmö led by developers with prior experience on atmosphere-driven games.