Bethesda has announced that they are working on an Indiana Jones game in partnership with Lucasfilm Games. The game is in development at Wolfenstein series developer MachineGames, and with Todd Howard acting as executive producer.
There’s not much news beyond that, with some time before there is a full reveal, but considering that Bethesda are set to be acquired by Microsoft this summer, there’s certainly some big question marks over whether this could become an Xbox and Windows PC exclusive.
For now, there’s plenty of teasers and clues to be found in the teaser announcement trailer.
A new Indiana Jones game with an original story is in development from our studio, @MachineGames, and will be executive produced by Todd Howard, in collaboration with @LucasfilmGames. It'll be some time before we have more to reveal, but we’re very excited to share today’s news!
— Bethesda (@bethesda) January 12, 2021
I spotted a book about the Ancient Circle and Forbidden Stories, as well as a plane ticket to Rome, amongst other things, and it certainly seems to be stepping back to the character’s heyday in the first half of the 20th century. I’m sure the eagle eyed fans out there might be able to cook up some kind of theories about the story and direction that MachineGames are taking us, but given how their games thus far have featured more than a few Nazis to shoot up, it’d make sense for Indi to be back to his Nazi bashing best.
This is the first sign of what Lucasfilm Games might mean for the various properties that the company holds, spreading their licenses wider than the 10-year exclusive deal that EA were able to get for Star Wars back in 2013. Working with Bethesda, though, does bring that aforementioned question over where this Indiana Jones game will be heading.
Indiana Jones is no stranger to video games, with Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis one of the many point & click adventures that LucasArts released in the early 90s. There were plenty of other efforts as well, but the next games that really stood out were 1999’s Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine and 2003’s Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb.
Following that, LucasArts were experimenting with new game engines in the mid-2000s for the PS3 and Xbox 360 era, using NaturalMotion’s Euphoria engine and advanced physics and ragdoll physics for a prototype of some classic brawling set in an Indiana Jones game, though after a behind closed doors demo at 2006’s E3, that project was eventually cancelled. That technology went on to provide some of the underpinnings for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, however.
Really it’s been over 15 years since a full-blooded Indiana Jones video game, and with the film franchise expecting another entry in 2022, it would be prime time for a video game to try and take advantage of revived interest in the character and series. It might even do a better job of showing off the character than the septuagenarian Harrison Ford!
Source: Twitter
