Grounded 2 arrived in Early Access simply three years after the primary recreation hit 1.0. The shock sequel caught many followers off-guard. Why make a brand new recreation as a substitute of simply updating the older one? And how did Obsidian Entertainment develop Grounded 2 so shortly, launching its Early Entry model the identical yr it’ll have shipped two huge RPGs in Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2? The reply has rather a lot to do with Deus Ex and Guardians of the Galaxy maker Eidos Montreal.
The veteran AAA studio isn’t only a co-developer on Grounded 2, it seems. “The majority of the heavy lifting is done in Eidos Montreal,” Obsidian recreation director Chris Parker recently told Polygon. “We have a core group of people here [at Obsidian], primarily the folks that worked on Grounded, of course. And then there’s folks like me, acting as game director, who are working day in and day out with Eidos. The artists and designers and engineers, the vast majority are at Eidos Montreal.”
That’s to not say that each groups didn’t work intently collectively. There was fixed cross collaboration in line with Eidos inventive director Justin Vazquez, together with large construct opinions each few months and alignment on the sequel’s emphasis on narrative and Early Entry scope. “Grounded is Obsidian’s IP,” he advised Polygon. “It’s their baby, and we are here to work with them to help grow the franchise together. The point isn’t for us to grab it and just run wild with it, so we collaborate on everything on the highest level of ideas and the lowest level. There isn’t anything that isn’t being touched by both studios to ensure that we are delivering the best experience for our players on Grounded 2.”
As for why make Grounded 2 within the first place, each builders pointed to technical limitations of the Xbox One and the will to push the ambitiousness of the sequence following the success of Grounded 1. It’s additionally clear that, whereas presently a lot smaller than the earlier recreation, which hit model 1.4 final yr, Grounded 2 is much more streamlined and approachable. The tough edges have actually been sanded down with out sacrificing a lot in the way in which of RPG crafting depth. It additionally simply appears much more detailed and vibrant visually. Grounded 2 has already hit 3 million players throughout Xbox and PC (it’s out there by way of Recreation Move on each).
All of that implies that Microsoft’s gambit of getting Obsidian basically outsource a lot of the sequel to an outdoor studio has paid off. It helps that Grounded was made with Unreal Engine moderately than a set of in-house proprietary instruments. Does this imply that Microsoft can discover partnerships to assist velocity up growth of its different franchises as effectively. The corporate revealed last year that Halo would even be transferring to UE5, with extra info on the way forward for that sequence coming in October. With rumors also circulating of probably a number of new Fallout video games in growth as effectively, what are the percentages that Obsidian or Bethesda may work with an outdoor studio on one in all them subsequent? After Bethesda efficiently partnered with Virtuos on the UE5 Oblivion remaster, an identical eventual replace to Fallout 3 appears all however inevitable.
These efforts don’t at all times bear fruit. Microsoft additionally canceled Perfect Dark this year, which was a collaboration between the smaller first-party workforce on the now defunct Initiative and Crystal Dynamics. However the pipeline that delivered Grounded 2, at the least the Early Entry model of it, looks as if one that might probably restrict some of the ever-lengthening lead times between new video games within the growing variety of Microsoft exclusive-franchises which have resulted from business consolidation.
