Obsidian Entertainment has revealed that its next project is a survival game called Grounded. In this follow up to the excellent The Outer Worlds, players assume the role of a tiny human who has shrunk to roughly the “size of an ant” and must now survive the perils of your average backyard. Yes, that means that it’s essentially Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, the video game. Rather than ape the plot of that film, players in Grounded will participate in pre-determined narrative adventures alongside player-driven content.
Gameplay will primarily consist of building bases, scrounging for resources, and combating various hostile elements, but it’s not entirely clear how all of these elements will come together. For instance, the PvE vs. PvP ratio hasn’t been firmly established at this time. It’s not entirely clear if there will be a PvP component or any other multiplayer options outside of the 4-player co-op gameplay that makes up the core of the experience.
Yet, two of the most interesting aspects of Grounded have nothing to do with the title’s still mysterious gameplay. First off, this is an Obsidian Entertainment title that isn’t an RPG (at least strictly speaking). Obsidian has almost exclusively focused on RPGs, which makes this genre departure (which was reportedly made by a smaller team) an inherently interesting prospect on the basis of its pedigree alone.
The other notable element of Grounded outside of its gameplay and genre is its exclusivity. This will be the first Xbox exclusive (at least based on the modern idea of that term) Obsidian title that the studio has developed since being acquired by Microsoft, and it will be available via Xbox Game Pass, Xbox One, the Microsoft Store, Steam (which has a partnership with Microsoft), and it will even be the first title available on Game Pass’ Game Preview system. This seems to indicate that the Obsidian/Xbox relationship begins in full with this title, but that doesn’t mean that all of Obsidian’s future titles will be exclusive to the various Xbox platforms.