Indiana Jones Game: Developer, Leaks & All We Know
The upcoming untitled Indiana Jones Game only has a short teaser trailer so far, but it's certainly got Xbox fans excited. Earlier this year, Bethesda Softworks announced the untitled Indiana Jones game, developed by Machine Games and produced by Todd Howard, in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games.
Since then, we’ve all been pondering how everyone’s favourite rogue adventuring archaeologist will return to video games. The few details we know and inferences we can make however, do illuminate the type of adventure we’ll be going on with Indy, so here is everything we currently know about the Indiana Jones Game.
Is There An Indiana Jones Game Release Date?
There is currently no official Indiana Jones Game release date or even a vague release window for the upcoming title, sadly. When it was initially revealed, Bethesda did put out a rather blunt Tweet that informs us that the wait for it will be long, stating, “It'll be some time before we have more to reveal, but we’re very excited to share today’s news!”
It joins a few other Bethesda titles with no almost no release information, like The Elder Scrolls VI and Machine Game's other rumoured title, Wolfenstein III, which is set to cap off the BJ Blazkowicz trilogy.
It’s possible the game could be released near the upcoming fifth film in the franchise, which is set to hit cinemas on June 30, 2023. That wouldn’t even be three years of development, though we don’t know exactly when they began working on the project and what stage Machine Games is at currently, but 2023/24 would be our educated guess.
Indiana Jones Game Trailers
We only have one trailer to go off for now. It was the same initial one used to announce and tease the game to the public. In the trailer, the camera pans across Indiana Jones’ study, showing a series of books, a passport and plane ticket, some other miscellaneous items, and most importantly his trademark bull whip and hat.
From the trailer, we can gather the year is 1937, which is during the prime of Indy’s career, when he was busy fighting Nazi’s and hunting mystical biblical artifacts. We’ll have a somewhat seasoned Indy by this point, post-Raiders of the Lost Ark and Temple of Doom, but pre-The Last Crusade.
We can also see in the trailer that the ticket leads to Rome. Obviously, Rome is quite a hotspot for archaeology, with it being home to the most influential civilization in history, so there is lots of room for an interesting story here. The fascist Italian leader Mussolini will have been active during this time, and Machine Games have shown a penchant for battling this cursed ideology with their previous anti-Nazi romps.
The books on the desk make mention of Mesopotamian myths, ancient stone circles that reference a jubilee, and forbidden stones, which is quite vague, but we suppose a mystical stone of sorts could be the game's plot MacGuffin. There are also notes about the Vatican City and the US Government, which could hint to a larger narrative involving theological aspects or conspiracy.
Indiana Jones Gameplay And Story
Click to enlargeThere is zero information concerning Indiana Jones’s gameplay so far. Machine Games has previously only made first-person titles, and the studio they were formed from, Starbreeze, was famous for their FPS games. This doesn’t necessarily mean the game will be first-person, as similar gaming series clearly inspired by Indiana Jones, like Uncharted and Tomb Raider have been third-person, so they may want to work from that blueprint. Truthfully, we can only speculate on the gameplay right now, but we’re sure to find out more whenever the next trailer hits.
In terms of story, we have a little more to go off. As mentioned above, there are a few hints in the trailer as to what the game could tackle, but nothing yet concrete. After the initial reveal, a Bethesda Tweet did confirm it would be a completely original story, so Machine Games likely have a lot of flexibility in what they want to approach.
Executive Producer, Todd Howard, has also stated in an interview with The Telegraph that he’s been pitching this game since 2009. He’s busy with Starfield right now as it is set to land next year, but he’s presumably quite hands-on with the game considering it’s a passion project for him.
Indiana Jones Game Platforms
Considering the acquisition of ZeniMax by Microsoft recently, Machine Games and Bethesda now full under the Xbox banner. Due to that we almost certainly expect the title on PC and Xbox Series X|S, though the last-generation Xbox One may be out of the question by the time it releases. The PlayStation 5 is unlikely as Microsoft have stated before all the upcoming Bethesda titles will be exclusives to the Xbox ecosystem. There’s been no announcement for the Game Pass yet, but we can expect it to be playable on day one.
