Grounded for Xbox One and PC: Everything you need to know

Though Obsidian Entertainment is best known for their top-notch role-playing titles such as Fallout: New Vegas and The Outer Worlds, their latest venture is something out of left field: Grounded, a survival adventure game where players are the size of ants and patches of grass are the size of buildings. Here’s everything you need to know about the game, including what the gameplay will be like when the game is releasing, where it will be available, and more.

During Xbox’s X019 event on November 14, 2019, Obsidian Entertainment announced Grounded alongside a trailer (which you can watch above). This was accompanied by a blog post made by the developers on Obsidian’s website that explained the general themes of the game and the type of experience that the developers want to create.

In terms of development, not much information is known. However, we do know that the game is going to be developed alongside an Early Access program on both Xbox One and PC. This is being done so that the developers can get player feedback on things such as bug fixes and new builds before the game’s official release.

Story and setting

Grounded is set in your average suburban backyard, with one major catch — players are tiny, and that means that things such as child toys, flowers, and plant roots are massive obstacles instead of insignificant objects. Creatures that regularly-sized humans wouldn’t think much about, such as ants, cockroaches, and bees, are now an enormous threat to your livelihood, and thus, you’ll have to figure out a way to survive their attacks.

Next to nothing is known about the actual narrative of Grounded, but Obsidian has confirmed that there is a story. On Grounded’s Steam page, it’s stated that the initial Early Access release will contain “Roughly 20% of the full storyline.”

Gameplay content and design

Based on both what we were able to discern from the trailer, as well as what the developers said the game would be like in their blog post, Grounded is going to feature traditional survival mechanics such as crafting weapons and armor, foraging for food and water, and constructing protective bases to survive in. To get the resources, they need to survive and thrive; the players will need to traverse obstacles such as thick patches of tall grass and the towering stalks of flowering plants, as well as venture deep into crevices and caves created by hostile insects. Players can play solo but Grounded also supports co-operative play for up to four people.

The game’s Steam page specifies what will be in the game for the initial Early Access release:

• Roughly 20% of the full storyline
• Three major biomes – the grasslands, the hedge, and the haze
• Crafting
• Base building
• Single-player and online co-op play
• First two tiers of weapons and armor
• At least ten insects
• Arachnophobia mode (presumably disables spider enemies)

As Early Access development progresses, more crafting recipes, enemies, environments, and other systems will be added to the game until Grounded eventually releases in full.

Release date and pricing

At the time of writing, Grounded has been slated to release on Xbox One and PC via Early Access in Spring 2020, with the official full release planned for “sometime in 2021,” according to the game’s Steam page.

There’s currently nothing known about the price of the game, but it is known that you’ll be able to play it — both in Early Access as well as the full release — if you’re a member of Xbox Insider (which is free), as well as Xbox Game Pass. Xbox Game Pass is Microsoft’s monthly subscription service that allows you to play countless games as much as you want for the consumer-friendly price of $10 a month. PC players on Steam will need to pay the price of the game when it releases in Early Access. Xbox players will have this option as well if they decide that Game Pass isn’t ideal.

🏡 Small Game, Big World – Obsidian Explores Their Upcoming Game, Grounded 🏡

Are you ready for PAX East?? 🙌
🐜 Date/Time: Sat, 2/29 at 1:30 PM ET / 10:30 AM PT
🐜 Watch @ PAX East: Dragonfly Theater
🐜 Online: https://t.co/NbrBvYUe5u

See you all there! pic.twitter.com/vg56TyuvAX
— GroundedTheGame (@GroundedTheGame) February 24, 2020

We’ll likely know more about both when Grounded will begin Early Access, as well as how much the game will cost when the developers talk about it during PAX East 2020. According to an announcement on Twitter, we’ll get to learn more by tuning into the official PAX stream on Twitch on February 29 at 1:30 PM ET/10:30 AM PT.

Your thoughts

What do you think of Grounded? Are you excited to get your hands on it and try it out? Let me know. I think it looks really fun. Plus, the concept of playing as a bug-sized human and trying to overcome bug-sized survival challenges is a cool and unique one, so I’m looking forward to it.

We’ll be sure to update this article with more information when it’s revealed. If you want to ensure you will have access to the game the second it’s available, make sure to sign up for Xbox Insider and subscribe to Xbox Game Pass.