Grounded joins the Xbox Insider Program, will let players test the Pond Update early

What you need to know

• Grounded is an open world survival game from Obsidian Entertainment that's currently in early access.
• Grounded just announced the biggest update it's had yet, the Pond Update, which is coming sometime next month.
• Dedicated fans can sign-up to test the Pond Update a few weeks earlier, to help fix bugs and other issues.
• You can sign-up for this public insider test on Xbox and Windows through the Xbox Insider Program, or on Steam.

Grounded has already captured the hearts of many a survival game genre fan, but today it's been capturing headlines too with the announcement of the Grounded Pond Update, an absolutely massive update that includes a ton of new features and massively overhauls the entire pond area in the game. The update is big enough that it's not coming until sometime in November, but Grounded players who want to be more involved can now sign-up to test out the Pond Update a few weeks earlier than everyone else.

Grounded's early access already technically tests updates before the game's public release, but Grounded wants the main early access to be more stable moving forward, so they created a new Grounded Public Test Ring. Before, it was only available through Steam, and it's never been used for major updates. Now, Grounded is expanding its aspirations to the Xbox Insider Program, where players can go right now through the Xbox Insider Hub. If you are playing Grounded on Steam, you can still go through Steam for a chance to test the Pond Update as well.

Casual players need-not-apply, as Grounded's Public Test Ring is only meant for those who are okay with dealing with more bugs and instabilities than normal, in order to help development along. All of us will be able to dive into the Pond Update's flood of content soon enough, once it releases in November, near the release of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.

If you missed it, be sure to check out our Grounded dev interview as well, for some more behind-the-scenes info on the Pond Update, Grounded's future, and more.

Grounded

Main

• Grounded: Everything You Need to Know
• Grounded: Is it good?
• Grounded: Beginner's Guide
• Grounded: List of creatures
• Get Grounded's best weapon
• Grounded: How to get the level 2 axe/hammer