According to Disney's gaming boss, Sean Shoptaw, Bethesda's Indiana Jones game being PC and Xbox exclusive isn't "overly exclusionary".
Shoptaw told Axios in a recent interview that the media and entertainment conglomerate is "just starting" with its plans to pair its franchises with game development studios.
Although Shoptaw didn't comment on a recent report from Bloomberg that suggested a potential Electronic Arts buyout from Disney, he said, "There's a lot of conversation around: 'Disney should go do this,' and a lot of that's tied to big acquisitions and things," explaining that "It's not just this easy assumption to say, 'Well, Disney could do that in-house'...
"We're very happy with where we are now strategically in the work that we're doing."
With games like EA's Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, as well as Marvel's Spider-Man 2 from Insomniac Games making waves, the next big Disney IP to receive a video game adaptation is Indiana Jones. The title is currently in development at Bethesda, the studio behind Starfield and Skyrim.
We know from the initial reveal that the game will be Xbox with a PC release. However, it's now been reported that, following Microsoft's buyout of Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax, Microsoft asked Disney to renegotiate the terms of Indiana Jones so the game wouldn't be released on PlayStation.
Shoptaw added that Xbox is "one of the bigger marketplaces for games" and that Disney "didn't feel like we were going to be overly exclusionary.
"We felt like it's still going to reach a broad set of folks, and we felt, financially and strategically for the game, that made sense at the time," he added.
Bethesda's Indiana Jones was announced in January 2021 alongside a teaser trailer and is in development at Wolfenstein studio Machine Games. Starfield game director Todd Howard will be acting as executive producer on the game, but, as of right now, there just aren't many details to go on.
However, Howard did comment on the project back in September, saying, "It can be brought to video games in a unique way. The game is obviously: you're exploring stuff. It's about [Indiana Jones]." He then added, "We'll talk next year", suggesting fans will be seeing more of the project in 2024.
If you're looking for something to play in the meantime, check out our list of the best games on Xbox Series X, as well as our picks for the best games on Game Pass.
