The FTC vs. Microsoft trial continues to be a great source of information. Yesterday, during the first day of hearings, Bethesda’s Head of Publishing Pete Hines revealed on the stand that the upcoming Indiana Jones game in development at MachineGames will be exclusive to PC and Xbox consoles. It was originally meant to be released on multiple platforms (likely PlayStation consoles), but Microsoft amended the contract with Lucasfilm after the $7.5 billion acquisition of Bethesda parent company ZeniMax. The Indiana Jones game will also be available from day one on Game Pass.
Hines also expanded on why the addition to Game Pass was appealing to Bethesda, as reported by The Verge.
The primary one in my view is what I said about reducing risk and trying to get to a degree of certainty. You’re dealing with a licensor who’s going to have a ton of feedback on what you’re making, add a lot of time to your schedule.
The Indiana Jones game was revealed in January 2021, after the aforementioned acquisition was announced but before it had been completed. We don’t have too many details about it, though Bethesda did say it would be a completely original story. The project will be executive produced by Todd Howard, Bethesda Game Studios’ Game Director on Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and Starfield.
No further information has been shared to date. MachineGames last released two games in 2019 (Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot), though both were side projects of a smaller scale. Last week, a rumor appeared alleging that the studio had been working on another project (not Wolfenstein 3, sadly) as of 2021.
Yesterday, Microsoft lawyers wrote in their defense against FTC that several future ZeniMax games would ship on PlayStation and/or Nintendo consoles, sparking hopes that the Indiana Jones game would be among them. That idea only lasted a few hours until Pete Hines confirmed that wouldn’t be the case.
On the flip side, during the same hearing, Xbox Game Studios Head Matt Booty said (via Stephen Totilo from Axios) a decision on exclusivity for The Outer Worlds 2 hadn’t been made yet. The first game launched on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and even Nintendo Switch. Of course, The Outer Worlds 2 is made by Obsidian and wouldn’t fall under the ZeniMax umbrella anyway.
In related Indiana Jones news, the final movie starring Harrison Ford as the titular protagonist, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, opens next week in theaters globally.
