Outrage doesn't exist anymore. I believe THQ disbanded them.
Parallax (which right now is 2 people) holds the right to develop the next Descent game, with some of the rights belonging to Interplay to publish it. Descent IV was "in the works" by an independent development team named Orbital Design Studios, who claimed to have Interplay's blessing, but without Parallax's was "forced" to terminate the project.
I believe there was more behind the scenes, but that is the public gist of what happened to Descent.
So, if all that is true, the "Descent" name is protected until Parallax decides to make it or give up the right to make it.
More personal speculation: If I were the CEO of Volition (who, I believe is 50% of Parallax), I would have engineered similar rights ownership in all my dealings with Interplay, including the FS franchise, as it began with a Descent name. But that IS idle speculation on my part.