Breaking New Ground(ed)

It’s been a stellar year for Xbox-owned studio Obsidian Entertainment, which released its first-person fantasy RPG, Avowed, earlier this year and is set to launch The Outer Worlds 2 in October. But sandwiched in between these two RPGs, like a crustless PB&J a five-year-old drops near the swings at their favorite park, is a third game for Obsidian’s biggest year yet. Revealed during Xbox’s marquee June games showcase, Grounded 2 is the surprise follow-up to the studio’s first venture into the survival genre, and perhaps even more surprisingly, it’s out this month.

Like its 2020 predecessor, Grounded 2 launched into Xbox’s version of early access known as Game Preview, giving players a chance to jump into the sequel while Obsidian is still actively developing it. While playing games early like this is commonplace in the indie scene, it remains a rarity to see a triple-A studio like Obsidian bare its flaws to let players enjoy a game still being worked on. But the team wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I think that there’s a level of transparency that is a double-edged sword at times, but once you commit to it and you’re consistent about it, it really helps manage the balance and build the trust with our community,” Obsidian vice president of operations and Grounded 2 executive producer Marcus Morgan tells me. “It’s about doing the best thing for the game, and we’re listening and we’re hearing players, and there’s faith that we’re going in the right direction based on their confidence in what they’re playing.”