No, Grounded 2 Isn’t Leaving Early Access Today — But the Pond Update Is Huge

Three different sites told me this morning that Grounded 2 hits version 1.0 today. It doesn’t.

What happens today, August 11, is two things at once, and neither of them is a full release. The PS5 version launches — in early access, same as everywhere else. And Into the Abyss goes live across all platforms.

Obsidian has not announced a 1.0 date. The roadmap has it staying an Xbox Game Preview title through the rest of 2026. For scale: the first Grounded went into early access in July 2020 and didn’t hit 1.0 until September 2022. Two years and change. Grounded 2 started early access July 29, 2025, so if they run the same clock, you’re looking at 2027.

I’m being pedantic about this on purpose. If you buy on PS5 today expecting a finished game, you’re going to be annoyed, and you’ll be annoyed at the wrong people.

What’s in the pond

The pond is the biggest area they’ve added to Brookhollow Park so far, and it goes both ways — surface and under it.

New stuff worth knowing about:

• Diving suits, which extend how long you can stay under and get you into the deeper sections
• Underwater base building — a dedicated building set, plus underwater-adapted versions of things you already use, like workbenches and storage
• The Toe-biter Buggy, an amphibious vehicle that handles land and water

That last one is the part I’m actually excited about. The Ladybug Buggy from Toxic Tangle back in January changed how the Garden felt more than any weapon they’ve added, because traversal is the real currency in this game. A vehicle that doesn’t stop at the water line is a bigger deal than another boss.

Into the Abyss is free. If you own Grounded 2, or you have it through Game Pass, you have it.

Release timing was pegged around 2pm ET / 11am PT, though I’d give any update window a couple of hours of slack before you start refreshing.

The update record is genuinely good

This is where I’ll defend the early access thing rather than complain about it.

September 2025 — Hairy and Scary. Added AXL, the tarantula boss. January 2026 — Toxic Tangle. The Garden, plus the Ladybug Buggy. April 2026 — Beat the Heat. Sinkhole Anthill, King Dozer. August 2026 — Into the Abyss. The pond.

That’s four substantial content drops in roughly twelve months, each adding a biome or a boss or both. Compare it to the survival games that took your money in 2023 and haven’t shipped a biome since. Eidos-Montréal and Obsidian are doing early access the way it’s supposed to work, which is rare enough that it’s worth saying out loud.

The game cleared three million players inside two weeks of launch and got a Best Early Access nomination at the 2025 Golden Joystick Awards. It earned that.

The PS5 question

Should you buy it on PS5 today, or wait?

Honest answer: depends entirely on whether early access bothers you. The build PS5 players get today is the same one PC and Xbox have been playing for a year, with the pond on top, so it’s not a stripped launch — you’re getting twelve months of updates on day one. That’s the best possible moment to arrive.

But it’s still a game that will change under you. Balance will shift. Things you build might break. If you’re the kind of player who wants to do one clean playthrough of a finished thing, wait for 1.0, whenever that is.

I’d buy it. I also have a base in the first game that I abandoned across two separate patches, so my judgment here is compromised.

The underwater base thing worries me a little

Water base building is one of those features that sounds incredible and is frequently miserable.

Subnautica made it work because the whole game was built around pressure, oxygen and vertical movement from the start. Grounded 2 is retrofitting water onto a game whose core loop is horizontal — run, gather, build, run further. Adding a resource that drains while you’re building, in a place where you can’t just drop a wall and be safe, changes the rhythm of the thing people actually like.

Might be great. I’m going to find out tonight and I’m bringing far too many diving suits.

Anyway — if you want to see how the genre’s other water game handles it, our Subnautica 2 beginner guide is the closest comparison there is for underwater base building, and the differences will be instructive. For what else is landing on the service around this update, the Game Pass price and tier breakdown covers which subscription actually gets you Grounded 2. And if you’re hunting for something smaller between updates, our hidden Steam games roundup still has a couple that hold up.

Post your pond base when you build it. I want to see whether anyone solves the oxygen problem in a way I haven’t thought of.

Sources: Grounded 2, Wikipedia — early access July 29, 2025 (Windows, Xbox Series X/S), PlayStation 5 August 11, 2026, developed by Eidos-Montréal and Obsidian Entertainment; update history: Hairy and Scary (September 2025, AXL tarantula boss), Toxic Tangle (January 2026, Garden area, Ladybug Buggy), Beat the Heat (April 2026, Sinkhole Anthill, King Dozer); three million players within two weeks of launch, Best Early Access Game nomination, 2025 Golden Joystick Awards; Xbox Wire, “Dive Into the Depths in Grounded 2’s Into the Abyss Update”, June 8, 2026 — pond biome, underwater base building, diving suits, amphibious Toe-biter Buggy, free for owners and Game Pass; Into the Abyss release timing approx. 2pm ET / 11am PT, Game Rant, August 2026; no announced 1.0 date — Grounded 2 remains an Xbox Game Preview title through 2026 per the early access roadmap; original Grounded early access July 2020 to 1.0 September 2022.