Xbox January Showcase Will Show First Indiana Jones Gameplay

Xbox has announced it’s hosting a “Developer_Direct” to showcase some of its upcoming first-party games later this month, including a first look at the Indiana Jones game by Wolfenstein developer MachineGames

The direct will air on Xbox’s Twitch and YouTube channels on Thursday, January 18, at 3 p.m. ET, and will showcase upcoming releases like Obsidian’s fantasy RPG Avowed, Oxide’s alternate history strategy game Ara: History Untold, and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, the long-anticipated sequel to Ninja Theory’s 2017 sleeper hit. But we’ve seen those games in action already, so Indiana Jones feels like the headliner here. According to the announcement on the Xbox Wire, the hour-long presentation will feature about 10 minutes of Indiana Jones gameplay and delve into the story and setting.

MachineGames announced the Indiana Jones game back in 2021, and at some point in its development it was meant to be a multiplatform game that launched outside of the Xbox/Windows ecosystem. However, documents revealed during the FTC vs. Xbox court cases in 2023 confirmed that Indy’s latest video game adventure will be exclusive to Xbox and PC following Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda and its studios

After the Developer_Direct, at 4 p.m. ET, ZeniMax Online Studios will host a reveal event for The Elder Scrolls Online to preview the MMORPG’s big 2024 update. The Xbox Wire post also notes that there will be no updates from any of the teams at Activision Blizzard following Microsoft’s completed acquisition of the company, but that the team will share more on their projects “later this year.” The Blizzard side of the company last updated fans at BlizzCon back in December, laying out the upcoming expansions in World of Warcraft and showcasing some of the new heroes and modes coming to Overwatch 2. So fans of those franchises aren’t hurting for new announcements and showcases.