New Indiana Jones Game Scrapped?

LucasArts‘ new Indiana Jones game may have been canceled, according to rumors.

The new Indiana Jones game for the Xbox 360 and PS3 has been canned, reports IGN, who has heard from multiple sources from within LucasArts and elsewhere that the game’s developers have been reassigned to other projects. Not a hard rumor to believe, since the game was originally announced in 2006 and has been increasingly absent in the years since. It didn’t even show up at last year’s E3. The last time the game was even mentioned in the public was last March, when it was revealed that the game would be using the Force Unleashed engine and would feature all sorts of destructible environments.

Contacted by Kotaku for response, LucasArts declared that they “remain absolutely committed to the Indiana Jones franchise. While we are aware that fans have been eagerly awaiting additional information on the upcoming game, they can rest assured that details are forthcoming.” Pretty vague, and as Kotaku points out, the key phrase is “committed to the Indiana Jones franchise” which implies that they could be “committed” to anything. Probably another LEGO Indiana Jones, I’m guessing.

If the rumors are true, then we have to wonder why LucasArts finally thought it was time to pull the plug? The game didn’t look especially bad, the Force Unleashed engine is clearly pretty capable, and people still love Indiana Jones, even if his last movie sucked. Must have been a seriously troubled game, or maybe Shia LaBeouf showed up at the office for a mo-cap session and wrecked everything somehow. Wouldn’t have been the first time.