Obsidian's Grounded will enter early access in July

Obsidian Entertainment tonight announced an early access launch date of July 28th for Grounded, their craft-o-survival game about teenagers shrunk down smaller than ants and turned loose in a back garden. If I've learned anything from the oeuvre of Rick Moranis, is that those kids are in for a tough time. It's a surprising game to see coming from a studio known for RPGs including The Outer Worlds, South Park: The Stick Of Truth, and Pillars Of Eternity, but who are you to pigeonhole them? While we've mostly heard about the four-player co-op so far, tonight's new look focused on the singleplayer side. Observe!

I am very much not okay with that tunnel spider. And now I've got it into my head that the manmade habitat is some sort of Wasp Factory. Oh no.

Grounded will hit early access July 28th on Steam and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which I'd assume means Game Pass For PC too. If you'd rather wait for the finished game, Obsidian have said they expect it'll be done in 2021.

Obsidian say the initial early access version will have around 20% of the fully storyline, crafting, basebuilding, three biomes, and other essentials - including an "arachnapopbia mode." Maybe it'll turn all spiders into bears, like that nice Skyrim mod. They then plan to finish the storyline while adding in new insects, biomes, things to craft, polish, and so on.

Here's another new vid from tonight with Obsidian gabbing about making it: