Indiana Jones And The Great Circle could be MachineGames and Bethesda's new Indy game
Lucasfilm domain registrations surface ahead of Xbox showcase
Indiana Jones And The Great Circle appears to be the title of Bethesda and Lucasfilm's new Indiana Jones game created by Wolfenstein developers MachineGames, if a recent brace of domain registrations are any indication.
As spotted by dashing internet tomb-plunderer Kurakasis, who is also the originator of this report on a potential Horizon MMO from Guild Wars publisher NCSoft, Lucasfilm registered several domains on 9th January 2024, including "indianajonesandthegreatcirclegame.com", having filed a trademark in Europe two years ago for "The Great Circle" as applied to goods and services for videogames.
The timing adds up. There's an Xbox Developer Direct coming on January 18th, which will cover the new Indiana Jones game together with Ninja Theory's Celtic psychodrama Hellblade 2, Obsidian's RPG Avowed, and Oxide's simultaneous-turn strategy offering Ara: History Untold.
Bethesda announced the new Indiana Jones game back in 2021. It's being executive-produced by Starfield chappy Todd Howard. As Alice0 noted at the time, MachineGames have serious form for games about moidering Nazis, so they're an excellent choice for the gig.
Graham makes a compelling case that the new game should find a way to let Indiana Jones be a clumsy doofus. "Where other action movie protagonists are suave, calm in the face of pressure, and preternaturally skilled, Indy is the ball in Rube Goldberg device," he wrote back in 2021. "He triggers traps, mis-judges distances, wins fights through dumb luck, and generally makes a mess and runs away. This is what makes him lovable. And yet none of these traits are a natural fit for a videogame protagonist, but I'm begging this game's developers: please find a way."
My hopes are pretty boring by comparison: I'd like a proper pub brawler melee combat system, building on the surprisingly technical Indiana Jones And The Emperor's Tomb, in which you could put people in a headlock and mess up their hair something awful. Look at him go!
It could be too much to ask, especially if the game is first-person: MachineGames know how to do dual-wieldy shootybangs, but their fisticuff talents are relatively untested. Anyway, we'll find out more soon enough.