LucasArts: Still hope for next-gen Indy game

LucasArts: Still hope for next-gen Indy game
Wesley Yin-Poole Updated on by

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There is “always hope” for a “next-gen” Indiana Jones game, LucasArts has said.

Speaking to VideoGamer.com, voice director David Collins revealed that the “next-gen” versions of Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings, a game due out for all major platforms except the 360 and PS3, were canned because of “timing” and “financial” reasons.

A 360 version of the game was shown to press at E3 2006, but never materialised. Rumours that it had been cancelled began to surface earlier this year. Collins, however, revealed that the decision to drop the “next-gen” versions and concentrate on Wii was made last year.

He said: “Well we did actually show at one point, in fact I demoed it, a 360 version a few years ago. Honestly we just had to make some really tough decisions as a company. A lot of it was timing. A lot of it was financial. The good news there is that the Wii is just a really great fit for Indiana Jones, and what we saw was an opportunity to move forward on a platform that just worked really well with the Wii Remote as a whip. So, we made that tough decision last year, and put all of our energy towards the Wii and the other platforms as well in order to make those the best that they could be and bring those to market in a time that made sense, which in this case is 12 June 2009.”

Collins did, however, offer a glimmer of hope to 360 and PS3-owning Indiana Jones fans by saying that LucasArts is “investigating new ways to bring Indiana Jones to market”.

He said: “I can say just as a follow up to that, that Indiana Jones as a brand is incredibly important to us, and will continue to be. It’s one of our core franchises. While we don’t have any announcements at this time about the 360 or PS3 or other consoles besides the ones that we’re talking about today, we’re always investigating new ways to bring Indiana Jones to market.”

When asked if that meant there was still hope for a new 360/PS3 Indiana Jones game, Collins replied: “There’s always hope. We’re always going to be making Indiana Jones games and Star Wars games. This go around we really decided that the Wii was the right way to go, and make a game that was really compelling with the Wii Remote, and utilises the same storyline.”

You can see how the Wii version is shaping up for yourself over at our hands-on preview.

How do you feel about LucasArts’ decision not to make a 360 and PS3 version of Staff of Kings? Let us know in the comments section below.