Indiana Jones And The Great Circle: Everything We Know So Far

First announced in 2021, Bethesda and Xbox’s Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is shaping up to be the game Indy fans (myself included) have long wanted. Sure, Uncharted and modern Tomb Raider games served up plenty of pulpy video game adventures, but finally, the world is getting the big-budget, AAA Indiana Jones simulator we’ve long deserved. Did you know this is the first true new entry on the list of Indiana Jones video games since 2009? It’s true! (Staff of Kings, you tried your best. Respect.)

To help you better prepare for Indy’s next globe-trotting journey, we’ve rounded up all the details and facts about The Great Circle in one convenient place. And you don’t even have to kill anyone or solve any ancient puzzles to access it.

Anyway, here’s everything we know about Indiana Jones and The Great Circle.

Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Release Date

As things currently stand, Xbox and Bethesda have promised Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will get a 2024 release date. Yes, we know, that’s rather vague, but we can hazard an educated guess at when the game will drop. Looking at the Xbox release calendar for the rest of 2024, we think it’s pretty safe to assume that Indy will arrive in the latter half of 2024, toward the busy Christmas season. Our money is currently on October, but we could also see it dropping in September.

Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Trailer

Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Story

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is an original adventure that is unconnected to any of the five films in the franchise. It does, however, take place in 1937, which puts it between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade on the canon Indy timeline.

The Great Circle sees Indy being pulled into a globetrotting mystery following the theft of a precious artifact from the Marshall College Museum. A trip to the Vatican to better connect the dots leads Indy to another mystery: The Great Circle. According to the game’s announcement trailer, drawing a line between the oldest and most sacred places on the planet creates a perfect circle. What does that have to do with the stolen artifact? No idea, but it appears the Nazis are involved.

So, clearly, it’s a storyline that includes all your favourite Indy tropes.

The game will take players across the world, from the pyramids of Egypt, Vatican City, the temples of Sukhothai, and many others. Familiar faces from the films will turn up in guest roles — Denholm Elliot’s fussy academic Marcus Brody is seen during the trailer — but there’s plenty of new ones too.

Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Gameplay

Machinegames says that The Great Circle is primarily a first-person adventure title that involves some shooting and melee combat. There are also sections where the camera will pull back to a third-person perspective during sections where he’s climbing or swinging around. Obviously, as seen in the trailer, some cutscenes will play out in the third person as well.

And before you ask, yes, Indy has his iconic whip, which you can use in all sorts of situations. The trailer features Indy using his whip offensively, attacking enemies and keeping them at bay. He can also use it to swing across large gaps, and even as a loud distraction when sneaking.

Is this the REAL Indiana Jones?

You mean ‘Will beloved actor Harrison Ford reprise one of his most cherished characters for this game?’ Unfortunately, no, dear reader. At 81 years old, I think we can all forgive Mr. Ford’s unavailability for a video game. The part of Indiana Jones in The Great Circle will be played by famed video game voice actor Troy Baker, doing his best Ford impression. You can hear a little bit of it in the game’s announce trailer.

Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Developer

You’ll see Xbox and Bethesda coming up a lot wherever people talk about the studio responsible for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, but they’re not the ones actually making the game. Machinegames, the Bethesda studio behind the excellent rebooted Wolfenstein games The New Blood, The Old Blood, and The New Colossus are at the helm of this new adventure. Those games involved killing a ton of Nazis, and, happily, so does The Great Circle. Nice to see Machinegames sticking to what it knows works — killing video game Nazis will never not be fun and satisfying.

It’s a different game for them, to be sure. The Wolfenstein games are all fast-paced first-person shooters. The Great Circle is a first and third-person action-adventure game, which should put Machinegames’ design sensibilities to the test.

Bethesda’s Todd Howard, who helped create Starfield and the Elder Scrolls series, will serve as an executive producer on the game, too.

Which platforms can I play it on?

Bethesda is obviously owned by Xbox these days, so there shouldn’t be any surprises about which platforms you’ll be able to get it on. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will launch on Xbox Series X|S and PC via Game Pass. It will also be available via Steam on PC. At this stage, neither Xbox nor Bethesda has had anything to say about a release on PlayStation 5 or Nintendo Switch. If such ports were possible, we wouldn’t expect to hear about them until at least a year after their launch on Xbox.

Is it coming to Game Pass?

Sure is! Because this is a Bethesda Indiana Jones game and Bethesda is part of Xbox now, all of its new releases are Day One launches on Game Pass for console, cloud and PC. However, if you’re the sort of person who prefers to buy their games individually rather than rely on subscriptions, you can relax: Bethesda will be selling the game separately as well.

Image: Lucasfilm