History and Games This Week
Welcome to the week in history and games, a short collection of links to stories and news that we hope you find interesting.
The big news in history and games this last week has to be the announcement that MachineGames - we like those people around here - are going to make a new Indiana Jones game! We have so many questions, like will this basically be an Uncharted game, or will Indy swing around like Spiderman, or will MachineGames get back to the character's Fate of Atlantis era klutziness? We can certainly expect an interesting depiction of Indy's greatest foe: the Nazis.
Slightly history-adjacent news but very much in line with the Indiana Jones story: we learned this week that Ubisoft are developing a new Stars Wars game. Star Wars feels like its own ongoing historical cultural event at this point, but there is plenty of historical influence across that universe, so let’s see what comes out of this.
In the ongoing game-history-as-news farrago otherwise known as the release of Cyberpunk 2077, Jason Schreier at Bloomberg has written a fascinating piece on what may have gone wrong inside CD Projekt Red. The short answer seems to be: lots of things.
Esther Wright and John Wills announced their new edited volume on Red Dead Redemption this week. The book is going to focus on history, myth and violence in the video game west. We can't wait to hear more about it!
We had a short episode on Iron Harvest go up on the site last week. It is a fun game, particularly if you might have a hankering for a classic RTS experience. Its 1920+ setting should keep you going too. Persistent European empires with diesel engine battle mechs. What's not to like?
Finally, it is Martin Luther King Day today in the United States. Consider taking a minute to check out this list of games by Black developers, helpfully put together by students at Florida State.
