The new Indiana Jones game is something of a passion project for Todd Howard, who has reportedly spent years trying to get the game made.
Ahead of the game's announcement in January 2021, Bethesda head of publishing Pete Hines discussed the project in an internal email shared as part of the FTC court case into the Xbox Activision deal. In that message, Hines noted that Todd Howard, who is executive producing the project, "has been trying to get this game made for over a decade."
Bethesda/Machinegames' Indiana Jones is something Todd Howard had been trying to get made for a decade. "Anyone who has seen the pitch has immediately said, 'oh my god, I have to play that game right now" -- Pete Hines email from 2021 (which is now evidence in FTC vs Microsoft) pic.twitter.com/MZi6i0MUL1June 26, 2023
Howard's role as executive producer might eat into his development time on Starfield, but it sounds like that's a risk he's willing to take. According to Hines, "Todd might be the biggest Indiana Jones fan on the planet. I'm not exaggerating even a little."
Fortunately, it sounds as though Howard's enthusiasm for the series should pay off around the Indiana Jones game. Hines goes on to say that "anyone who has seen the pitch [for the game] has immediately said 'oh my god, I have to play that game right now'. It's going to be amazing and we think reaction to the announcement is going to be terrific."
The reaction was certainly pretty positive, even if we don't have a huge amount of detail to go off just yet. So far, the only concrete information is that Indi's iconic hat and whip will make an appearance, that MachineGames is developing the project, and that the game is an "original" story, not one tied directly to the Indiana Jones films. We've also learned that in line with Bethesda's existence as an Xbox studio, the Indiana Jones game is an Xbox exclusive, despite an originally-planned PS5 release.
Excited for the Indiana Jones game? Then you best keep an eye out for Indiana Jones 5 in cinemas.
