Word is out that Bethesda’s MachineGames is working on Wolfenstein 3. The possibility of the game was mentioned in a post by Windows Central‘s Jez Corden, and Kotaku can confirm it’s true from our own sources. The Swedish developer, which most recently knocked it out of the park with 2024’s Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, is returning to the Nazi-blasting franchise for the first time since 2019’s Wolfenstein: Youngblood.
As Bethesda Softworks approaches its 40th anniversary (the company’s first game was 1986’s Gridiron! for the Amiga and Atari ST!), and with a Wolfenstein TV series in the works to follow Fallout onto Amazon Prime, there’s not really a better time to revive the long-loved series, and given MachineGames’ previous success with the title, it seems like the right team to be doing it.
Youngblood was, in fairness, somewhat disappointing—the spin-off co-op game featuring the daughters of usual main character B.J. Blazkowicz was too short and somewhat adrift. But MachineGames’ previous entries, The New Order, The Old Blood, and The New Colossus, were all tremendous. The first of these was once described by Kotaku as “one of the best shooters ever,” and the latter still offers one of the finest ways to punch Nazis.
Of course, though the MachineGames series represents something of a reboot with The New Colossus being referred to as Wolfenstein II, there are a great many more games in the franchise. Wolfenstein as an IP began before even Bethesda, with Castle Wolfenstein released in 1981 for the Apple II, followed by a 1984 sequel. The series was then revived in 1992 in id Software’s all-time classic Wolfenstein 3D, arguably the first fully fledged first-person shooter. Other than the wonderful expansion Spear of Destiny, things went quiet again as id moved on to Doom and Quake, with the license ultimately ending up with Activision which released 2001’s Return to Castle Wolfenstein. And that was brilliant too! Splash Damage had a go in 2003 with Enemy Territory, later followed by the bizarre Wolfenstein RPG from id once more, until stalwart post-id developers Raven Software gave us the first of the reboots, Wolfenstein, in 2009. And it was…fine. It would be another five years before MachineGames took the helm with The New Order and reinvented the franchise as an arch satire of fascism which, sadly, has only grown more potent and relevant in the years since.
Given there’s no official announcement from Bethesda, there’s obviously no word on what the game will entail, but hot off the back of the superb success of Indiana Jones there’s reason to hope for a big, ambitious project right when we need the catharsis of taking down Nazis once again. We’ve reached out to Bethesda to ask for comment.
