Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is Bethesda Softworks’ next AAA release, with the company partnering with Disney and Lucasfilm to adapt the iconic film franchise.
The movie industry is continually leaning on video games as a source of familiar, marketable IPs that can be adapted into the next billion-dollar box office hit. Video games are doing exactly the same, but in reverse. More and more, big-name publishers are looking to Disney for established franchises that can be adapted into video games. It’s a winning formula, at least commercially, judging from the top-selling games of 2023.
PlayStation struck gold with Spider-Man, and Xbox is hoping to do the same with Marvel Comics’ Blade and Indiana Jones. That said, the upcoming Indiana Jones game has lingered in an awkward limbo for years due to Microsoft’s acquisition of ZeniMax Media. Because of that, it’s worth going over the game’s history and discussing what is known about it.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle release date info
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is coming out in 2024. A more specific release window has not been revealed.
The game was first teased in 2021, and was simply referred to as “Indiana Jones.” Little was known about the game beyond that, but executive producer Todd Howard stated in a 2023 interview that the game was “midway” through development. This seemingly suggested it wouldn’t come out until 2025 or later, but a new trailer delivered at the Xbox Developer Direct in January 2024 confirmed that the game would be coming out later in the year.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be the first proper video game adaptation of the character since 2009. That year saw two significant releases with Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues and Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings. The only other game to receive a release on non-mobile platforms since then is a digital version of Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure.
MachineGames is making the next Indiana Jones game
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is being developed by MachineGames and will be published by Bethesda Softworks. Todd Howard of Fallout and Skyrim fame is the executive producer.
Not all fans will recognize the MachineGames name. The developer is best known for its recent work on the Wolfenstein series. The company has been regarded as hit-or-miss for its games, with titles like Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus garnering high critical praise while others like Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot and Wolfenstein: Youngblood were labeled as mediocre.
The development has reportedly been a team endeavor across multiple Microsoft-owned studios. Included in that has been some support work from 343 Industries, the studio behind the struggling Halo: Infinite. With manpower being diverted away from Halo: Infinite, the added support from Bethesda’s Xbox brethren may have contributed to the relatively quick turnaround from Todd Howard’s previous statements about the game only being halfway through development.
What platforms will Indiana Jones and the Great Circle be on?
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will launch for the Xbox Series X/S and PC. Like other Xbox first-party games, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be added to the Xbox Game Pass catalog on day one.
There is no word on the game being made available on other platforms, however. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle won’t be available on PlayStation 5 at launch, and there’s no word on the possibility of it launching at a later date. The game was planned to launch on PlayStation consoles at one point, but this changed after Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media was acquired by Microsoft.
Fans desperate to play the game on PlayStation consoles shouldn’t completely lose hope, though.
Xbox is reportedly bringing first-party titles like Sea of Thieves to competing platforms, suggesting that Microsoft might be opting out of making exclusives for its own console. However, fans shouldn’t get their hopes too high up about that. It’s possible this could be limited to specific titles, or a prolonged exclusivity window could be in place. Fans wanting to get Indiana Jones and the Great Circle in a timely manner after its release ought to plan on doing so on Xbox Series consoles or PC.
Will Harrison Ford be a part of the Indiana Jones game?
Harrison Ford’s likeness is used for the titular character in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Fans of the films will instantly recognize the star actor’s face, but they might suffer from some uncanny valley when it comes to Indiana Jones’ voice.
Troy Baker will voice Indiana Jones in the game. Having Ford’s face with someone else’s voice is unfortunately a tradition when it comes to Indiana Jones games, though it’s not necessarily a surprise.
Ford has never played the role of Indiana Jones in any of the previous video games inspired by the franchise. The character has instead been voiced by actors tasked with sounding like the original, and that’s again going to be the case in this latest title.
While longtime Indiana Jones fans would undoubtedly prefer to have Ford reprise his role in the game, there are few voice actors more prolific than Troy Baker. Baker’s most notable role to date is likely as Joel from The Last of Us video games, but he has voiced many memorable characters across games, cartoons, and anime. Among his credits are Yamato in the Naruto series, Kanji in Persona 4, and both Batman and the Joker in various animated films and games.
Is Indiana Jones and the Great Circle a first-person shooter?
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a first-person shooter, although it’ll have third-person elements mixed in.
The 2024 Xbox Developer Direct Microsoft gave fans their first look at the type of gameplay they can expect from the upcoming Indiana Jones game. While the game is primarily a first-person experience, instances like cutscenes and environmental traversal will change the perspective to third-person. This suggests the game will be a mix of Wolfenstein and the Indiana Jones-inspired Uncharted series
Executive director Todd Howard stated in 2023 that the game will be a “mash-up” of different genres, and the game looked that part in the first gameplay trailer. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will blend melee combat, stealth, gunplay, and puzzle-solving. Indy’s iconic whip plays a significant role in the game and will be used for combat and environmental traversal.
Is Indiana Jones and the Great Circle canon?
Microsoft’s 2024 Developer Direct revealed that the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is canon.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is set between the events of Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, which are the first and third films of the iconic Indiana Jones movie franchise, respectively. This timeframe suggests that the game will explore the gap between Indiana’s 1935 and 1938 adventures and it could serve as a lead-in for the second film, The Temple of Doom.
The upcoming title by MachineGames begins with Indiana Jones working at Marshall College. He’s woken up in the middle of the night by a thief seemingly in search of an artifact that’s in Jones’ care. One thing leads to another, and the iconic archeologist finds himself in the Vatican. Along the way, he’s also set to visit Egypt, the Himalayas, and Sukhothai.
