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The gaming industry is still spiraling from the recent changes at Xbox — and is fearful of what this means for upcoming titles like Grounded 2. Xbox has been selling off developers and shuttering other companies under their umbrella, resulting in thousands of layoffs across multiple developers. It’s been a big blow for fans of those games and plays into the tumultuous position Xbox currently enjoys in the community.
It’s also raised a lot of questions about the future of Grounded 2. Despite several PR headaches lately, Grounded 2 has been a genuine success for Obsidian and Xbox in general. It’s currently set for a full-scale release in August, with fans eagerly awaiting the finished product after being impressed with 2025’s Early Access release. With Xbox’s recent moves highlighting the volatile nature of the industry at the moment, it’s no wonder that fans are worried about what this means for the future of the game.
Grounded 2 Has Been A Hit For Xbox — And Company Just Gutted Its Developer
It’s hard to overstate just how much of a surprise success Grounded 2 has been for Obsidian and Xbox. The sequel entered Early Access in 2025 for Windows and Xbox Series X/S. Building on the success of the first game, Grounded 2 offers a larger setting, greater movement options, and a larger array of equipment to construct. New elements like the Omni-Tool lent themselves well to gameplay, winning over critics of the first game and turning it into a bona fide success story for a company in desperate need of them. Grounded 2 managed to hit over 3 million players in early access, which makes the upcoming full release for Xbox, PC, and PS5 all the more exciting.
However, fans are worried about the future of the game given recent developments with Xbox. The publisher has been carrying out massive cuts across the company, laying off 3,200 people across Xbox’s various companies, with five studios moving away from the company. While Grounded 2 developer Obsidian hasn’t been shut down, Xbox’s recent waves of closures and shutdowns have reportedly seen the developer lose a quarter of its staff. While this is likely to be more focused on the part of the company that was focused on The Outer Worlds 2, Grounded 2 may still be impacted by these decisions.
Grounded 2 Fans Are Worried About The Future
The gutting of Obsidian ahead of Grounded 2‘s formal release is a big deal, given that the game has been a genuine success for Xbox. The company has been facing frustrated fans all year long. Well-received games are going to be the key to winning players back and bringing them back into the fold, which is what made Grounded 2 such an important release for the studio. This has left fans online especially worried, with many noting that the game has been picking up momentum among players that could now be at risk of being derailed as the game enters the final stretch before release.
Obsidian just had 25% of its employees laid off. I don’t know if this will affect Grounded 2
byu/Successful_Page_4524 inGroundedGame
Comments on the GroundedGame Reddit have noted that “[Xbox] would be utter fools to let this game drown,” noting that the original game was a passion project by Obsidian employees. “I only hope none of them got the axe,” one poster noted. The most charitable read among players seems to be a hope that these cuts avoid the Grounded 2 team entirely and remove some of the layers of management at the company to make room for developers. Some also took note that most of the game’s development is being handled by Eidos Montreal, which hasn’t been impacted by the layoffs.
However, there is an underlying concern that this restructure might just be the beginning for Xbox’s future. Even if the team working on Grounded 2 is free from the initial impact of these cuts, they’re also now more aware than ever that their future is largely in the hands of executives at Microsoft who have shown a willingness to shut down critically acclaimed companies for not earning enough money. That puts inherent pressure on the team that could bleed into the game and impact the future of the product. While Grounded 2 might be a big enough success already to avoid too much interference from corporate, it doesn’t bode well for the studio’s future that gamers are this worried about what comes next.
