Disney Insists Bethesda's Indiana Jones Game Going PC and Xbox Exclusive Isn't 'Overly Exclusionary'

12.12.2023 - 16:55 / ign.com / Phil Spencer / Pete Hines / Matt Booty / Tim Stuart

Microsoft’s high-profile legal battle with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over the fate of its $69 billion buyout of Activision Blizzard unearthed a number of explosive revelations, among them the fact Microsoft renegotiated ZeniMax's deal with Disney to make Bethesda's upcoming Indiana Jones game exclusive to Xbox and PC, thus ditching the PlayStation 5 version.

During the trial, Bethesda's Pete Hines revealed that Disney had an agreement with Bethesda owner ZeniMax for a multiplatform AAA Indiana Jones game, but after Microsoft bought the company, the agreement with Disney was amended to transition the Indiana Jones game to an Xbox and PC exclusive. At the time, Hines said the game was set to hit Game Pass on day one.

Several emails and conversations shown during the trial added colour to the decision to make Indiana Jones a platform exclusive. “While it is not in our messaging, I think it is important to highlight that Lucasfilm brought up the issue of platforms because we have a signed agreement with them to develop the game for multiple consoles," read an email between Hines, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer, Xbox Studios head Matt Booty, and several other executives.

"The upside here is a game coming from Bethesda that everyone will be excited about. This is the most important thing. The downside for Xbox... is that a large percentage of output from Bethesda won’t directly benefit the Xbox community in any way," Spencer wrote in January 2021.

Hines said he was told by Spencer in a subsequent call that Bethesda should continue to look at title exclusivity on a case-by-case basis. Asked why Indiana Jones was ultimately amended, Hines attributed it to "reducing risk and trying to get a degree of clarity."

"You’re dealing with a licensor who is giving a ton of feedback on what you’re making, is going to add a ton of time to your scheduling, these agreements, you don’t get to take as long as you want, you have a window of time in which you’re going to release a game, you immediately have a clock that’s ticking on you," Hines said.

In short, while Bethesda had a degree of control over what happened with Starfield, it has much less control over Indiana Jones, which is owned by Lucasfilm. "Truthfully, we also kind of liked the idea of embracing, bringing it to Game Pass and how many players we could get there," Hine said.

A subsequent court document revealed how Microsoft believed it could use Game Pass and console sales to help offset the losses it would incur from making Indiana Jones and the recently released Starfield Xbox console exclusives.

The FTC cited Microsoft Gaming Chief Financial Officer Tim Stuart's testimony, stating that Microsoft had forecasted "more than 10 million" sales on PlayStation "for both