Grounded no longer needs a Microsoft Account for multiplayer

While Sony are actively making their PC ports worse with forced PlayStation Network accounts even for single-player games, some companies choose to make them better and now Grounded from Obsidian Entertainment and Xbox Game Studios gets improved.

Grounded was updated at the end of September to remove the forced Microsoft Account sign-in to play multiplayer on PC, as it's now Steam Native. Nice to see! We saw a similar thing with It Takes Two removing the EA app requirement. Hope to see more like this, because it's thoroughly annoying to launch one game and end up with another sign-in.

Here's what's changed:

Steam Native Support

• Steam players no longer require a Microsoft Account to play multiplayer
  • While not logged into a Microsoft Account, you can host and join standard world multiplayer sessions with players from your Steam friends list
  • Note: a Microsoft Account is still required for Crossplay, Shared Worlds and Playgrounds

Changes:

• Added a Crossplay Toggle in the Main Menu to quickly switch between a “Crossplay State” and a “Steam Native State”
  • Friends will need to be in the same “State” to see and join each other online
• Players can now unlink their Microsoft Account from their Steam Account
  • Navigate by going to Options - Game Tab - At the bottom you will see “Unlink Microsoft Account”

Grounded is Steam Deck Verified and works great on desktop Linux with Valve's Proton.

Available to buy on Steam.