While The Outer Worlds has been a success for Obsidian Entertainment, response to the studio’s upcoming IP Grounded was a bit mixed. Though it was made clear that the co-op survival title is being worked on by a small team, one has to wonder what the rest of the studio is up to. The answer is: More games, specifically in the role-playing game category.
Speaking to Eurogamer, programmer and Grounded director Adam Brennecke said that, “Just like with Outer Worlds we have big RPGs being worked on right now. We have a lot of stuff being worked on right now.” When quizzed about how many games were in development, studio head Feargus Urquhart (who notes that he’s not the CEO anymore) responded, “More than one, less than forty. We’re working on a number.”
Interestingly, the team behind The Outer Worlds is still busy with the game. Though Urquhart didn’t outright confirm it, there seems to be a plan for continued support, perhaps some post-launch content. “What’s always been interesting about the independent developer before was: who was going to pay for support? If I’m not being paid for support by the publisher then […] we have this weird thing of how do we do it?
“In the Microsoft world, we get to run a studio based on what makes sense for the franchises and I’m not having to make these day-to-day decisions so much. People are obviously loving Outer Worlds and we made it because we love it, so now we get to keep on doing things to help support [it],” said Urquhart.
In the meantime, Grounded will be hitting Xbox Game Preview for PC and Xbox One soon. The game thus far seems to focus on crafting, base-building and survival while playing as a bunch of shrunken kids beset by all manner of danger. A full release is planned for 2020.
