The follow-up to the 2022 Obsidian's survival-craft adventure Grounded has just been announced at the Xbox Games Showcase, with Grounded 2's game preview launching to Xbox on July 29. The first Grounded, while a major hit, spent two years in early access, its own preview having launched in July 2020; now, the devs are looking to follow the same model.
Grounded 2's executive producer, Marcus Morgan, explains following the Xbox Games Showcase: "Pretty much from day one we knew we wanted to return to Game Preview for Grounded 2."
Early access is a great way for devs to develop their games based off player feedback, and while teams of playtesters are a standard part of the development process, games that have huge communities such as Grounded benefit greatly from an early access period.
"Sure, it comes with some trade-offs like 'the game's not done, and it's out to the world'," Morgan admits. "But there's so much value in building it alongside the community."
This development model can't exactly be faulted when taking a look at the success of Grounded and its dedicated community of players. An early access period also means that with this reveal, players don't get slapped with a 2026 release date and instead will get to dive in as soon as next month.
Sure, the game isn't going to be polished and some pretty big bugs – not the literal kind that are found in the game – will most likely be present. But players will be excited regardless to join the community effort of helping to make Grounded 2 into something worthy of its predecessor.
