Grounded 2: Obsidian Built a New Map Just to Make Bug Mounts Work

Obsidian Entertainment says the decision to build a full sequel rather than expand the original Grounded came down to one specific feature: rideable bugs. According to producer Marcus Morgan, speaking to Shacknews during its E4 2026 coverage, the studio realised early on that Grounded’s original map simply wasn’t designed to support a mount system, and that gap became the entire reason Grounded 2 exists.

“Factor number one, and the most important factor, was we knew we had to build a completely new space to sustain ‘buggies’ – our mount system in the game,” Morgan told Shacknews. “So with Grounded 1, the way we did like level design and area design, it wasn’t really designed in mind to have mounts in the world. We needed to revamp and make a whole new world to support buggies, which is the main feature of Grounded 2.”

Why Grounded 1’s Backyard Couldn’t Handle Rideable Insects

Grounded’s original setting was built around tight traversal through grass blades, root systems and cluttered garden debris, all scaled for a shrunken-down player on foot. That density worked brilliantly for the survival-crafting loop Obsidian shipped in 2020, but it left little room for anything resembling a mount to move at speed or navigate obstacles smoothly.

Rather than retrofit that existing map, Morgan’s comments confirm Obsidian chose to design an entirely new environment from scratch specifically so buggies would have room to breathe. That is a notable admission for a studio that could have leaned on a live-service style expansion of an already popular title instead.

Buggies Become Grounded 2’s Headline Feature

Morgan’s framing makes clear that the mount system, internally referred to as “buggies,” isn’t a side addition bolted onto Grounded 2 but the centrepiece the sequel was engineered around. For a franchise built on the novelty of surviving as a shrunken human in an oversized backyard, giving players armored insects to ride changes both the pace and scale of exploration significantly.

Where the first game rewarded careful, on-foot navigation around hazards like spiders and hostile ants, a functioning mount system opens up faster traversal, new combat approaches and presumably new verticality across whatever expanded map Obsidian has built for the sequel. It’s a meaningful shift for returning players who spent hundreds of hours memorizing the original yard’s chokepoints on foot.

Dropping Last-Gen Consoles to Support the New Tech

Alongside the mount system, Shacknews reports that Obsidian’s other motivation for a sequel was technical: continuing to update the original Grounded while supporting PS4 and Xbox One had become limiting for the team. Grounded 2 drops those older platforms entirely, focusing development on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

That platform cut isn’t unusual for a 2026-era sequel, but it’s a clear signal that Obsidian wanted the freedom to build systems like buggies without being constrained by last-generation hardware. For players still on older consoles, it also means Grounded 2 won’t be an option unless they’ve moved to current-gen hardware, something worth noting for Australian and New Zealand fans weighing an upgrade before jumping into the sequel’s early access build.

Early Access Momentum Ahead of Wider Coverage

Shacknews notes that Grounded 2 has performed strongly since entering early access, with Obsidian describing the launch period as a success internally. That performance suggests the studio’s bet on rebuilding the world around mounts, rather than patching the feature into the original game, has resonated with the existing community.

Given the strong early reception, expect Obsidian to keep expanding Grounded 2 through its early access period with further content tied to the buggy system and the new map. For fans of the original who built entire bases and survived countless spider ambushes, the sequel’s redesigned world and rideable bugs mark the clearest evolution the franchise has taken since its 2020 debut.