Disney talks Indiana Jones Xbox exclusivity, the KOTOR remake, and more

(Image credit: Lucasfilm)

What you need to know

Sean Shoptaw, Senior VP of gaming at Disney, recently offered his thoughts and insight about a range of topics during a recent interview with Axios.
Shoptaw says the company is "very happy" with its licensing strategy, which sees Disney work with acclaimed developers to create games based on its franchises.
The firm also isn't concerned about MachineGames' upcoming Indiana Jones game being "overly exclusionary" as an Xbox exclusive, and believes it will still reach "a broad set of folks."
In regards to the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake that reportedly isn't being worked on right now, Shoptaw didn't say much, but did say KOTOR is "an incredibly popular game, one that we are incredibly proud of and think that there's still a lot of demand for."

While Disney has been a dominant force in the film and TV industries for as long as anyone can remember, one sector it's struggled in is the gaming market. Many of its in-house development studios were shuttered in the 2010s, culminating in a complete exit from game publishing altogether in 2016. Since then, the company's opted for a licensing approach, working with some of the biggest developers in the industry to bring its properties to life in interactive experiences.

This strategy largely has Disney in the background, and as such, insight about its gaming ventures nowadays tends to be quite rare. A recent interview from Axios with the entertainment firm's gaming lead Sean Shoptaw, however, offers a look at his thoughts and the company's strategy.

Overall, Disney is pleased with the success of its licensing approach, which as led to critically acclaimed releases like this year's Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. "We're very happy with where we are now strategically in the work that we're doing," Shoptaw said.

He leads a group of roughly 100 producers and executives that help oversee the licensing of Disney's franchises, ensuring that they land in the hands of studios they feel are a good fit. They're also doing "a lot of air traffic control" to try and keep new releases spaced out.

Some titles, though, such as Crystal Dynamics' Marvel's Avengers and Eidos-Montreal's Guardians of the Galaxy, didn't perform well commercially. But Shoptaw understands that creating games is an arduous process, and says Disney would collaborate with the developers behind these games again in the future.

"We would go back and work with those studios again. They're great studios, great partners," he told Axios. "Games are really hard to make. If you've got great IP. If you've got a great story. You know, it's still a challenge."

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Cal Kestis with Lightsaber. — Respawn Entertainment's Star Wars: Jedi Survivor is regarded as one of 2023's best games. (Image credit: EA)

Shoptaw also touched on a variety of other topics, with perhaps the most significant bit of news being that Disney doesn't think making Bethesda and MachineGames' upcoming Indiana Jones game an Xbox exclusive restricts where it can be played to an unreasonable degree. Notably, as an Xbox exclusive, the game will be playable day one on both Xbox and PC via Microsoft's buffet-style Xbox Game Pass service.

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"Xbox still being one of the bigger marketplaces for games, we didn't feel like we were going to be overly exclusionary," he said. "We felt like it's still going to reach a broad set of folks, and we felt, financially and strategically for the game, that made sense at the time."

Shoptaw didn't offer much about last month's news that the highly anticipated Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake is currently dead in the water, though it does sound like Disney may be interested in trying to keep the project alive. "Not a lot I can say on that point for some hopefully obvious reasons, but KOTOR is obviously an incredibly popular game, one that we are incredibly proud of and think that there's still a lot of demand for. I'll leave it there."

The gaming Senior VP also reaffirmed Disney's faith in Square Enix's upcoming Kingdom Hearts 4, as well as its commitment to diversity and making sure "that things that we see on screen are representative of our consumer base, our audience." Speaking on the large number of game industry layoffs in 2023, he also noted that the company is "super empathetic to what's going on, even with our own partners, in some cases," and that it tries to be "the best partner" and "as flexible" as possible.

All in all, there are some interesting — and telling — answers here. Though a Bloomberg report suggested there might be internal pressure for Disney to publish again through the acquisition of a huge gaming corporation like Electronic Arts, Shoptaw (who didn't address the rumor directly) made its satisfaction with its current licensing strategy clear. Also, even though he never mentioned Game Pass specifically, it stands to reason that its colossal subscriber base of 25 million across Xbox and PC assuaged concerns about Indiana Jones' reach as an exclusive. Oh, and as a massive fan of Star Wars: KOTOR, it's great to hear that Disney holds it in the same high regard that I do. Dare I allow myself to hope for a revival of its remake's development?

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Brendan Lowry is a Windows Central writer and Oakland University graduate with a burning passion for video games, of which he's been an avid fan since childhood. He's been writing for Team WC since the summer of 2017, and you'll find him doing news, editorials, reviews, and general coverage on everything gaming, Xbox, and Windows PC. His favorite game of all time is probably NieR: Automata, though Elden Ring, Fallout: New Vegas, and Team Fortress 2 are in the running, too. When he's not writing or gaming, there's a good chance he's either watching an interesting new movie or TV show or actually going outside for once. Follow him on X (Twitter).

4 Comments Comment from the forums

GraniteStateColin

For many years, I thought that KOTOR was the greatest game ever made with a huge amount of rich dialog, characters you cared about who joined your party and interacted with each other, a really interesting plot with a fantastic twist that really hit you in the gut (not quite as jaw-dropping as Bioshock's, but close), the ability to play as light or dark and the meaningful way those choices changed the game and character interactions... And based on the original and still the best pen-and-paper open gaming d20 system, just an amazing game. It held that crown until I played CDPR's The Witcher 3 and then Cyberpunk 2077, which are now my top 2 games of all time, with KOTOR still in the top 3. Obviously, given the similarities between those, I'm an RPG guy first and foremost.

Other great games in that list would be:

Ultima IV - a breakthrough game, really the first RPG with a meaningful story and where it felt like decisions and choices mattered. First game where you were rewarded for being ethical (long before KOTOR) instead of just for killing everything (but there was plenty of that kind of action too).

Morrowind - the vast and interesting open world and incredible depth to the lore, the impact of choosing which family to align with, all brilliantly done and felt more meaningful than Oblivion or Skyrim

Skyrim - for all the reasons that everyone knows this game was great, but also the first RPG that, at least for me, provided enough variety of things to do (minigames, diverse areas to explore), that the game never really got boring. Fallout 4 was even better at that, but it had other problems that keep it off my "best games ever" list, plus Skyrim had this attribute first.

Wizardry I - no other game has had me feel so attached to my characters, where every small gain of a hit point, new spell, or ability felt incredible, and all deaths were permanent unless someone else survived to bring back the character (yet there was a risk of being turned to ash and lost forever). Zero save scumming, it was completely impossible -- all events were permanent to anyone else who every plaid the game on the same disk. Unique weapons, armor, and magic items were literally unique. If one player found one of them, no one else could ever get it again (without buying another copy of the game). No game since has had that: you played it on the original disk (copy protection made it very difficult to make a backup of the original), and the game modified the disk as you played, so there was literally no way to start over or undo anything, and the gameplay and character leveling all fit perfectly with that. If your party died out on an adventure, their bodies would lie there with their loot until someone else found them and looted them or brought back their bodies to attempt a resurrection.
Reply
fjtorres5591

The key difference between Morrowind and the other Bethesda open world RPGs is is that Morrowind has an actual (hardwired) ending (MOURNHOLD not withstanding) whereas the newer games are increasingly open ended and freeform where the "main quest" can be completed in a variety of ways or totally ignored. They are increasingly becoming sandbox games for exploration, discover, and experimentation rather than pure narrative games like KOTOR. MASS EFFECT 1, and DRAGON AGE.

The latest, STARFIELD, is so open, the main quest has zero impact on the rest of the game world, unlike some of the faction quests. Not even a guard bark makes reference to it, it is a purely personal quest. No civil war, dueling armies, or invading force to change the status quo. Presumably that is to be achieved by the next decade of DLCs and NG+ changes. A new approach, there.
Reply
fjtorres5591

GraniteStateColin said:
For many years, I thought that KOTOR was the greatest game ever made with a huge amount of rich dialog, characters you cared about who joined your party and interacted with each other, a really interesting plot with a fantastic twist that really hit you in the gut (not quite as jaw-dropping as Bioshock's, but close), the ability to play as light or dark and the meaningful way those choices changed the game and character interactions... And based on the original and still the best pen-and-paper open gaming d20 system, just an amazing game. It held that crown until I played CDPR's The Witcher 3 and then Cyberpunk 2077, which are now my top 2 games of all time, with KOTOR still in the top 3. Obviously, given the similarities between those, I'm an RPG guy first and foremost.

Other great games in that list would be:

Ultima IV - a breakthrough game, really the first RPG with a meaningful story and where it felt like decisions and choices mattered. First game where you were rewarded for being ethical (long before KOTOR) instead of just for killing everything (but there was plenty of that kind of action too).

Morrowind - the vast and interesting open world and incredible depth to the lore, the impact of choosing which family to align with, all brilliantly done and felt more meaningful than Oblivion or Skyrim

Skyrim - for all the reasons that everyone knows this game was great, but also the first RPG that, at least for me, provided enough variety of things to do (minigames, diverse areas to explore), that the game never really got boring. Fallout 4 was even better at that, but it had other problems that keep it off my "best games ever" list, plus Skyrim had this attribute first.

Wizardry I - no other game has had me feel so attached to my characters, where every small gain of a hit point, new spell, or ability felt incredible, and all deaths were permanent unless someone else survived to bring back the character (yet there was a risk of being turned to ash and lost forever). Zero save scumming, it was completely impossible -- all events were permanent to anyone else who every plaid the game on the same disk. Unique weapons, armor, and magic items were literally unique. If one player found one of them, no one else could ever get it again (without buying another copy of the game). No game since has had that: you played it on the original disk (copy protection made it very difficult to make a backup of the original), and the game modified the disk as you played, so there was literally no way to start over or undo anything, and the gameplay and character leveling all fit perfectly with that. If your party died out on an adventure, their bodies would lie there with their loot until someone else found them and looted them or brought back their bodies to attempt a resurrection.
No love for the other BioWare games? MASS EFFECT 1, DRAGON AGE ORIGINS and INQUISITION? 😎
Reply
GraniteStateColin

fjtorres5591 said:
No love for the other BioWare games? MASS EFFECT 1, DRAGON AGE ORIGINS and INQUISITION? 😎
I've never played the Mass Effect games, but I've heard great things about those and may have liked them at the time. I did play Dragon Age, but it felt much less open-world to me than those others and I lost interest. KOTOR is also not fully open-world, but it's close. There are probably some other great games, even to my personal preferences, that might have made my list, but I've just never played them.

Another pair that I missed that were incredible at the time: Underworld and System Shock, both from Origin Systems. A System Shock remake finished in 2023. I had backed that through Kickstarter.
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