So with the rapid coming of the new Indiana Jones game, we have a lot of uncomfortable confrontations to... well... confront given the very apparent nature of what the game represents and how Xbox studios are choosing to handle it. All that without even mentioning my trepidations about the game itself and how actually good it will be considering the absolute rafters that Machine Games are known to usually be shooting for- I want it to be good, but I'm not getting those sparks of wonderous excitement. I have a feeling that next years Indiana Jones is going to end up as yet another Xbox first party studio that is smothered so far under controversy that the wider and more pertinent conversations are lost until the next age wherein we look back unburdened by the politics of the time. Can't wait for the "Starfield was actually pretty good" video essays in a couple of years- like clockwork.
Firstly, I don't think Indiana Jones looks like a bad game. This isn't a Ubisoft scenario where we're observing the team struggle against their own innate mediocrity to make something that isn't total bloated hogwash- Machine Games are respectable developer with an impressive cattle in their yard. Farm yard? (Stop letting me use metaphors, I'm terrible at them.) The modern Wolfenstein games propelled that boomer shooter into one of the most fun alternative history dramatic bullet-rain games on the market- and though they're made some curious steps in that franchise recently- ('New Blood' was a choice to be sure) no one dares doubt their pedigree. Plus, rumour has it they've had plenty of time to make the game so we're not going to stumble upon a Cyberpunk at launch debacle. Hopefully.
But it's hard to shake the feeling that this Indiana Jones game isn't quiet seizing an identity all of it's own- at least from the previews. When we heard that Jones would be getting the Machines Games treatment there was off-hand joke about "Oh what, are they going to turn the game into a first person shooter with a fedora on top". and whilst that might have been conceived as facetious... umm... yeah, that really does seem to be what they're doing. Only this looks slower and clunkier than Wolfenstein, with bizarre leaps between first and third person so that you can watch Indie swing with his whip or climb down a ladder? Nah, that hybrid stuff doesn't work. Pick one of or the other, it looks goofy otherwise!
Add to that initial unease that fact that Machine Games appear deeply insecure about the choice to go first person for one of the most iconic characters in movie history and keep trying to justify it whenever they open their mouths. They even had Troy Baker insist how immersive and quintessential it was in the latest trailer- how about letting the game talk for itself? (Ya'll ain't scared of that, are ya?) I'm just not sure if this game is going to sit right in the hands of the players- which is a shame in a studio that were once so very good at gamefeel. Maybe that's what makes them so conscious of it in the public limelight? We'll have to see. Besides, arguably the more substantive story here relates to the publishing plans for this highly marketed Microsoft first party title.
It's coming to Playstation. Tucked away to no fanfare at the end of this trailer was the realisation that this game would be launching on all platforms seemingly without even so much as an exclusivity date. Which means that in this console war of ours, within which Hardware specifications have grown so insular that only exclusives count for anything anymore, Xbox has fully dropped the ball on exclusivity without gaining literally anything in return- essentially murdering the last reason anyone has to own an Xbox over a Playstation. At the very least they could have held this release over Sony's head to try and twist their arm into an exclusive port of something. The Final Fantasy VII Remake, God of War, Horizion Zero Dawn- literally anything. Instead- they've given all the rest of the ground that they have.
Xbox is hurting right now, but only in the sense that exists in the punishment rooms of perverted executives. Microsoft is not on-the-dole, they aren't struggling to pay their staff, they aren't even worrying about being able to afford their next mutli-billion acquisition- they are Microsoft. But just like separate law enforcement agencies in a cop drama- that all around strength is not shared with every branch of Microsoft. Sure Xbox exists under them but if Xbox has had a few shaky years, like they have, then Microsoft have no trouble treating them like a particularly disobedient plague-dog who peed on the carpet. And like a self fulfilling prophecy this flagellation of a company that had the sheer gall to exist during an international global financial downturn is now feeding into terribly regressive practices that further stunt the studio.
Sony, on the otherhand, are growing fat and careless on the failures of their biggest competitor- to the point where they don't even consider Xbox to be their chief competitor anymore and are now setting sights on- I dunno, the entire PC market? (Certainly feels that way.) It truly is horrific when Xbox lack faith enough in the size of their own userbase that they're pimping out a first party game to Playstation in order to make a profit- seemingly ratifying the odious Sony sentiment that they are 'The best place to play.' What's next? Are we going to see a Starfield port to Playstation as many have already speculated? Is the next Halo going to go limping over to the blue-side with their DMR between their legs? Are Xbox going to retire as a console company altogether? (They better bloody not!)
Downplay it though they might Indiana Jones is shaping up to be a battlegrounds that is surely going to overshadow the efforts of the team and it's because Microsoft can't get their damned self-competitive crap in check. Although that is the nature of the corporate world, is it not? Bite down and gorge on your own tail until you reach the point of hurting yourself, and then keep going into you go up like a raging inferno of stupid choices. And while we're at it, screw Xbox for getting themselves in this position to begin with, and screw Sony for goading on the collapse of the console market as though losing Xbox wouldn't shudder the ground beneath them too. God, I hate this industry sometimes.
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