Obsidian teases Grounded Xbox Insider release ‘soon’

Obsidian has kicked off its marketing efforts for Xbox and PC survival game Grounded and urged fans to sign up for the Xbox Insider program for an “early peek”.

Announced at X019 in November, Grounded has players “shrunken to the size of an ant” and tasked with surviving in the micro-world of a suburban backyard.

Players must gather, craft and build bases with everyday objects found within the yard, searching for life-saving resources and living alongside giant, peaceful insects while fighting to survive hostile inhabitants.

Grounded will be the first Xbox Game Preview title available via Game Pass.

On Thursday Obsidian launched multiple social channels for Grounded and announced a panel for the game at PAX East later this month.

On February 29 members of the development team will show new footage of Grounded and share more details around its survival gameplay, it said. The panel will start at 1:30PM ET and will be streamed live.

Obsidian also suggested that the game could release early for Xbox Insider members.

“If you want to get an early peek at the world the team here at Obsidian is making with Grounded then you should absolutely look into the Xbox Insider program very soon,” it said.

Grounded is described as the “passion projection” of a small development team at Obsidian, which it says is “one of many” teams working on new projects internally.

“This title has given the team the creative outlet to bring their years of developing highly regarded games to bear on the survival genre,” said communications director Mikey Dowling in a prepared statement.

“RPGs like The Outer Worlds will always be in Obsidian’s DNA, but from time to time we want to stretch our creative muscles and try things that might be a little different “

Dowling said that Microsoft has been a “fantastic” partner for Grounded and confirmed that development on the game started “long before” its acquisition of Obsidian last year.

“We’re fortunate to be given the freedom to continue flexing our creative muscles and develop the games we want to make.”