Bethesda’s MachineGames is working on an Indiana Jones game

Wolfenstein developer MachineGames is making an Indiana Jones game, parent company Bethesda has announced.

The collaboration with the newly reformed Lucasfilm Games label was announced via a video on Tuesday, which features a pan over a desk littered with iconic items from the movie series, including Indy’s famous hat and whip.

Executive produced by Elder Scrolls and Fallout director Todd Howard, the Indiana Jones game will tell a wholly original, standalone tale set at the height of the career of the famed adventurer, Bethesda said.

“It’ll be some time before we have more to reveal, but we’re very excited to share today’s news,” the company added. In a separate post on StarWars.com, Lucasfilm said that some clues to the game’s setup could be found in Tuesday’s teaser.

MachineGames said in a statement: “As huge fans of the franchise, it’s a tremendous honor for us to create a brand-new Indiana Jones game with a completely original story. We’re very excited and can’t wait to share more in the future!”

The Swedish developer was formed in 2009 by former employees of Starbreeze Studios. After agreeing to join Bethesda, the company became the new custodian of the Wolfenstein FPS series, releasing several instalments including The New Order (2014), The Old Blood (2015), The New Colossus (2017), Youngblood (2019) and Cyberpilot (2019).

In a post on Twitter, Chronicles of Riddick and The Darkness lead Jens Andersson – who spent several years at LucasArts before its closure – confirmed he is involved in the Indy game.

MachineGames’ parent Bethesda agreed a $7.5 billion sale to Microsoft last year, with the deal expected to be completed in early 2021, so it’s unclear if the Indy game will release on platforms other than Xbox and PC.

Following the announcement of the ZeniMax deal, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said Microsoft would honour existing PS5 exclusivity agreements Bethesda has in place for games like Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo.

For future Bethesda games, Spencer said: “we’ll take other consoles on a case-by-case basis.”

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella echoed Spencer’s comments: “When we think about strategy whether it’s in gaming or any other part of Microsoft, each layer has to stand on its own for what it brings. When we talk about our content we want our content to be broadly available.”

Indiana Jones’ most recent video game releases were Traveller’s Tales Lego titles, which released in 2008 and 2009.

Dead by Daylight studio Behaviour Interactive (then known as Artificial Mind and Movement) released Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings for Wii and PS2 in 2009, but it was widely panned by critics.

Arguably the Indy series’ most pivotal video game tie-in was the classic point-and-click adventure Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, released in 1992 by LucasArts.