Todd Howard has been trying to make an Indiana Jones game since 2009

Indiana Jones and the Pile of Old Books — (Image credit: Bethesda Softworks)

At the start of the year, Bethesda made a surprise announcement: Machine Games, the studio behind the recent Wolfenstein games, would be taking on Indiana Jones in a brand new, whip-swinging adventure. But while this news came somewhat out of nowhere, it sounds like Todd Howard has been jonesing to made an Indiana Jones game for some time.

Asked for an update on the game by The Telegraph, Howard said only that he was "super excited" with how the game is coming along. And so he should—he's only been trying to get it made for over a decade.

"I think I originally pitched Lucas in 2009 and I’ve been trying to find a way to make that since," said Howard. "I think the work Machine Games have done, they’re just phenomenal developers and storytellers. And when I started talking to them about it, it was a good fit. And we got to the opportunity to talk to Lucas and Disney about it and they were super excited.

"I really like Indiana Jones but never thought I’d have the opportunity to make a game. And you’ll hear about more of that in the future. But the team at Machine Games are the best team in the world to pull this game off and they’re doing a phenomenal job."

Howard also gave a tiny update on The Elder Scrolls 6, which Bethesda has been almost silent on since its announcement alongside Starfield in 2018. With this year's E3 giving us a proper tease at the studio's spacefaring romp, Howard noted only that TES6 is being built on the same engine.

"The [new Starfield] technology, Creation Engine 2, is sort of built for both. It’s like a new tech base. The vast majority of our development work is on Starfield right now but everybody works on everything so the projects kind of intertwine."

Eagle-eyed fans did convince themselves the Starfield trailer was saying more than Bethesda let on, mind, believing a small scratch to be a tease for TES6's location. Whether true or not, the speculation does map with existing rumours that the game will take place in Hammerfell, High Rock, or both.

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.