Skip to main content

Bethesda’s Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is coming out this year

Indiana jones buried in the sand.
Bethesda

The first gameplay footage of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was revealed at Xbox’s January Developer Direct showcase. The game will be released later this year.

The showcase gave us over 10 minutes of gameplay and information from the developers on what we now know is titled Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Set in -between Raiders of the Lost Arc and Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, the story will focus on Indy in his quest to discover why a seemingly insignificant artifact was stolen. However, the most compelling part of the presentation came in the gameplay presentation.

Unlike Uncharted or Tomb Raider games, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be played from a first-person perspective to better put the player in the shoes of Indiana and highlight the studio’s strengths. It will occasionally switch to a third-person perspective for traversal and cutscenes. Footage showed off gunplay, fistfights, whip-based combat, platforming, and puzzle-solving in a globe-trotting adventure through numerous environments. We also learned that there are multiple ways to approach encounters.

Official Gameplay Reveal: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle – Developer_Direct 2024

While originally announced in January 2021, developer MachineGames has been silent on the project ever since. The title was revealed by Bethesda with a simple teaser showcasing nothing more than the studio’s name on a typewriter, some old journals and maps, and finally, the archeologist’s iconic whip. MachineGames previously developed the modern Wolfenstein games, which also heavily featured Nazis as antagonists, leading many to see this as the perfect team to take on the Indiana JonesIP.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is currently slated for sometime in 2024 as an Xbox-exclusive title.

Jesse Lennox
Jesse Lennox loves writing, games, and complaining about not having time to write and play games. He knows the names of more…
6 lessons that Bethesda’s Indiana Jones game can learn from the series’ past
Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny may be the last movie to feature Harrison Ford’s iconic hero, but there’s at least one more adventure coming. In early 2021, Bethesda announced that a new original Indiana Jones video game is in the works, but it’s anyone’s guess as to when it will arrive. But given Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda, it’s likely to be an Xbox exclusive.

So far, Bethesda hasn’t shown fans anything from the new Indiana Jones game, which doesn’t give us a lot to go on. But as someone who has played Indiana Jones video games my entire life, going all the way back to the 1980s and the Atari 2600 era, I can tell you that there are certain lessons that the previous games in the franchise can impart on the current game that Bethesda is working on. There are even some games that clearly borrowed a lot from Indiana Jones that could offer some lessons of their own for Bethesda. When taken as a whole, this is a road map that could finally deliver the Indiana Jones game of our dreams.
Finding the right difficulty

Read more
Xbox and Bethesda’s Developer_Direct: how to watch and what to expect
The four hero characters in Redfall dragging a vampire, who's reaching towards the camera with clawed hands.

Microsoft has confirmed rumors that it will be holding a game showcase later this month. Called a Developer_Direct, this livestream will take place later today and feature updates on Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda games launching over the next few months, like Redfall.  Xbox doesn't typically do that many games showcases outside of events like E3, so this Developer_Direct seems like Microsoft's own take on the Nintendo Direct or State of Play formula.
That said, it's being a bit more transparent that it will be a bit slower-paced than Nintendo or PlayStation's shows typically are. For those planning to watch the show live today, this is how to watch Xbox's Developer_Direct Showcase as well as what you can expect from games like Redfall, Forza Motorsport, Minecraft Legends, and The Elder Scrolls Online at the event. 
When is Xbox and Bethesda's Developer_Direct? 
Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda's first-ever Developer_Direct will air live and for free later today, January 25, at 3 p.m. ET / 12 p.m. PT. 

How to watch Xbox and Bethesda's Developer_Direct
The Developer_Direct showcase will be officially livestreamed by Bethesda and Microsoft in the following four places: 

Read more
Xbox and Bethesda’s Developer_Direct is their most important showcase ever
A screen capture from the Redfall gameplay reveal.

Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda just announced that their first-ever Developer_Direct showcase will be held January 25, giving Microsoft footing in the game showcase space outside of events like E3 and Gamescom. After a rough year for Xbox first-party studios, this Developer_Direct will finally give us another very deep look at games like Redfall, Forza Motorsport, and Minecraft Legends, whichwill start to form its game lineup for this year, whetting our appetites for what's to come to Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Game Pass in 2023. Although the seeming lack of any brand new first-party announcement might make this Developer_Direct not feel that exciting to the average player, this is a critical showcase for Microsoft if it wants to win jaded fans back.
So far this console generation, Microsoft has been inconsistent in terms of both content and transparency about the state of its games. We've gotten a couple of exhilarating bursts of info on new upcoming exclusives at the past couple of Xbox summer showcases, and fall 2021 had a solid lineup of releases in Deathloop, Forza Horizon 5, and Halo Infinite. But these flurries of excitement are overshadowed by large droughts in terms of releases and reports that cast doubt over the state of some first-party games' development. That's why Developer_Direct will be so crucial for Microsoft. This show will allow it to refocus players on a (hopefully) more consistent release lineup and start to give fans a consistent showcase cadence to be excited for. 

The content factor
Digital Trends has done plenty of writing highlighting how 2022 was a very weak year for Microsoft. The delay of Redfall and Starfield in 2022 really ruined that year, even though Pentiment and As Dusk Falls were good games. For more mainstream gaming fans, though, Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda's 2023 looks way more exciting. Games like Redfall, Forza Motorsport, Minecraft Legends, and Starfield have 2023 release windows, while long-announced games like Senua's Sacrifice: Hellblade II, Contraband, and Avowed seem like they've been in development long enough to not be too far off. However, Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda haven't shown us how this year will be paced out in terms of releases, and players were not pleased with Microsoft's lackluster presence at The Game Awards 2022
That's the first major task of Developer_Direct. While no release dates were technically promised in its announcement, this show is a prime spot to let Xbox fans know precisely when they can get their hands on these long-awaited first-party titles. One of the most exciting parts of a Nintendo Direct is consistently seeing Nintendo's lineup for the next few months take form in real time, giving fans a bunch of neat titles to experience before the next inevitable showcase. Xbox is sorely in need of something like that, and Developer_Direct provides the perfect opportunity to do so, mainly because it seems to be focused less on the number of announcements and more on delivering info about games people are already interested in. 

Read more