The New Order, the one that started it
Wolfenstein: The New Order came out on Steam on 2014-05-19, developed by MachineGames, published by Bethesda, Metacritic 81, $19.99. It was the studio's first Wolfenstein and the first game of the run Wolfenstein 3 finishes.
MachineGames had never made a Wolfenstein game before this one. The studio had been founded in 2009 by seven former Starbreeze developers, pitched ideas for a year and a half, been rejected by everyone, and then been handed a franchise by Bethesda after ZeniMax bought id Software.
The record
| Field | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Steam appid | 201810 | Steam store API |
| Steam release | 2014-05-19 | Steam store API |
| Developer | MachineGames | Steam store API |
| Publisher | Bethesda Softworks | Steam store API |
| Metacritic | 81 | Steam store API |
| Price | $19.99 | Steam store API |
| Platforms on Steam | Windows only | Steam store API |
| Genre | Action | Steam store API |
The Steam page describes it as reigniting the series that created the first-person shooter. That is marketing copy and it is also broadly true: this was the first Wolfenstein with a modern budget since 2009.
What it set up
The game opens in an alternate 1946 where the Nazis are winning, puts B.J. Blazkowicz in a hospital bed for fourteen years, and wakes him in 1960. Everything MachineGames has done with this series since runs on that premise.
The prologue also contains a choice that decides which of two characters survives the rest of the game. That choice is why the name Fergus on the Wolfenstein 3 script page is a bigger deal than it looks: in one branch of The New Order, Fergus is the one who lives, and the script page puts him in the room.
Why it matters to a 2026 announcement
Three things on the script page trace back to this game. B.J. is the protagonist it established for the modern run. Fergus is a character it introduced. And the chapter structure the page uses, Chapter 01 followed by a title, is how this game is laid out.
| Wolfenstein 3 detail | Traced back to |
|---|---|
| B.J. Blazkowicz as protagonist | The New Order, 2014 |
| Brian Bloom voicing B.J. | The New Order, 2014 |
| Fergus in a scene | The New Order, 2014 |
| Numbered chapters with titles | The New Order, 2014 |
Where it sits now
Eleven years old, still $19.99 on Steam, still the entry point for anyone who wants to understand what Wolfenstein 3 is continuing. The Old Blood came a year later as a prequel, and The New Colossus followed in 2017 as the direct sequel.