Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: How the Wolfenstein Team Made the Best Indy Since Raiders

Around 2009, years before he had any reason to expect it, Bethesda's Todd Howard pitched an Indiana Jones game to George Lucas. Nothing came of it then. More than a decade later, Howard was executive producer on exactly that game, and he had conceived its story.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle launched on December 9, 2024 for PC and Xbox Series X|S, came to PlayStation 5 on April 17, 2025, received its first story expansion in September 2025 and arrived on Nintendo Switch 2 on May 12, 2026. Two years on, it stands as one of the best-reviewed games Xbox has published this generation, and a rare licensed game that fans of the films treat as part of the canon.

An unlikely team for a whip and a fedora

The game was made by MachineGames, the Swedish studio best known for its modern Wolfenstein shooters, working with Lucasfilm Games and published by Bethesda. Development took more than five years, under director Jerk Gustafsson and creative director Axel Torvenius.

On paper, a studio famous for shooting Nazis in first person might seem a strange fit. In practice, it was perfect. Indiana Jones has always fought Nazis, and MachineGames had spent a decade learning how to tell character-driven stories from behind a hero's eyes. Rather than a shooter, though, it made an adventure game that rewards sneaking, improvising and solving puzzles, with Indy's whip and fists doing more work than any gun.

The business side mattered too. Microsoft bought Bethesda, and MachineGames with it, while the game was in development, and the deal turned a multi-platform licence into a showcase for Xbox and Game Pass. The game launched there first as a timed console exclusive, before following on PlayStation and, later, Nintendo's new console.

A story set between Raiders and The Last Crusade

The game takes place in 1937, between Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It begins with a break-in at Marshall College, where Indy teaches, and spirals into a race to understand the Great Circle: a set of ancient sacred sites that form a perfect circle on a map of the world.

The journey visits Vatican City, Gizeh in Egypt, the Himalayas, Shanghai, Sukhothai in Siam and Iraq, home of the Ziggurat of Ur. Indy's rival is Emmerich Voss, a Nazi archaeologist and occultist played by Marios Gavrilis, and his ally is Italian journalist Gina Lombardi, played by Alessandra Mastronardi. A giant tribe called the Nephilim, and the secret they protect, sit at the centre of the mystery.

Troy Baker becomes Indy

The question every fan asked was simple: who could possibly play Indiana Jones? The answer was Troy Baker, best known as Joel in The Last of Us, who provided both the voice and the motion capture, while the character uses Harrison Ford's likeness. Critics widely praised the performance, and it earned Baker the Great White Way Award at the New York Game Awards.

The game also includes the final voice role of horror icon Tony Todd, who plays the mysterious Locus. He died a month before the game was released.

MachineGames clearly loved the films' craft, from the globe-trotting map transitions to the banter between Indy and Gina. The studio treated the cutscenes like a film shoot, and the result feels closer to a lost movie than a game built around a licence.

Scores, sales and a long award season

Critics were enthusiastic. The Great Circle scored 87 on Metacritic for PC, 86 for Xbox Series X|S and 88 for PS5, with 93% of critics recommending it on OpenCritic. It was the second-best-selling game in the US in its launch week, despite being available on Game Pass, and the best-selling PS5 game in its first week on that console. By January 2025, Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella said 4 million people had played it.

Awards followed. It won Adventure Game of the Year at the D.I.C.E. Awards and Nordic Game of the Year, and was nominated for D.I.C.E. Game of the Year, Best Game at the BAFTA Games Awards and Best Action/Adventure Game at The Game Awards 2025. Haab's score was even nominated for a Grammy in 2026.

The Order of Giants and the Switch 2 version

The story expansion The Order of Giants launched on September 4, 2025. It is set during the Vatican City part of the main story and follows the trail of the Nameless Crusader and the giant Abgal. It received mixed reviews, softer than the main game's. In October 2025, a free update added New Game Plus and an extra ending scene.

Then, on May 12, 2026, came the Nintendo Switch 2 version. It runs at 30 frames per second. Docked, it renders at 540p and uses Nvidia's DLSS upscaling to reach 1080p, while the handheld screen outputs at 720p. For a game that requires ray tracing, simply running on a handheld is an achievement, and it means Indy is now on every major current platform.

By the numbers

• 2009: roughly when Todd Howard first pitched an Indy game to George Lucas
• 5+ years: development time
• 1937: the year the story is set
• 4 million: players by January 2025
• 88: Metacritic score for the PS5 version
• 86: musicians on the Abbey Road score

Why it matters

The Great Circle is a turning point for Xbox in two ways. It was an early example of Xbox bringing a major new game to PlayStation just four months after launch, a sign of the multi-platform strategy that has since become normal. And it proved that MachineGames, long seen as a shooter studio, could build a slower, smarter adventure.

It also sets a new standard for licensed games. Too many film tie-ins have been rushed out around a movie premiere. This one had more than five years, a respected studio and the freedom to tell its own story, and it shows. Fans who grew up on the films now have a new Indy adventure that sits comfortably next to them.

Not every licensed game gets this kind of afterlife. Two years after launch, The Great Circle has picked up an expansion, a New Game Plus mode, new graphics technology and two new platforms, and players are still discovering it. For a film tie-in, that is about the best compliment there is, and it gives Lucasfilm a strong case for letting game studios take their time with its heroes.

What to play next

• First time? Any version works, and the PS5 and PC versions offer the best visuals. Switch 2 is the one to pick if you want Indy on the go.
• Finished it? The Order of Giants adds a few more hours in Rome, and New Game Plus makes a second run more fun.
• If you want more MachineGames: Wolfenstein: The New Order shows where the studio's storytelling began.

For another 2026 port that brought a big game to new players, read our South of Midnight story.