Yesterday Microsoft’s Major Nelson revealed that a new piece of multiplayer DLC for Mass Effect 3 was on the way, however now BioWare have actually confirmed its existence and gone live with some details.

Major Nelson’s July 17th release date is correct for the Xbox 360, PC and PS3 in the US, whilst in Europe it’ll release on July 18th.

Earth also brings a lot of new features to the multiplayer game, bringing in three new maps: Firebase Rio, home of the N7 training facility; as well as Firebase Vancouver and Firebase London.

A new “array” of playable N7 characters also join the fight, allowing you to utilise an N7 Demolisher Engineer, N7 Destroyer Soldier, N7 Fury Adept, N7 Sentinel Paladin, N7 Shadow Infiltrator and N7 Slayer Vanguard.

New weapons are also available, meaning you can pick up the N7 Piranha Shotgun, N7 Typhoon Assault Rifle and Acolyte Pistol. “Powerful” upgrades go hand in hand with the new weapons offering 12 new modifications and 11 “unique” upgrades for your gear.

If that wasn’t enough, in-mission objectives have been introduced too, meaning that new challenges occur randomly during waves 3, 6 and 10. These challenges require you to keep a targeted agent alive by protecting and escorting them to extraction zones on each map.

Finally a new “Platinum” difficulty has been introduced to (figuratively) sort the men from the boys – or indeed the women from the girls.

If that wasn’t enough, Earth multiplayer DLC will be entirely free!