Looks like Bethesda's Indiana Jones game now has a name

Indiana Jones and the Pile of Old Books
(Image credit: Bethesda Softworks)

Lucasfilm has registered several new domains for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, including one that specifically refers to the title as a game. The registrations were first spotted by X user Kurakasis and include:

http://indianajonesandthegreatcirclegame.com

http://indianajones-and-the-great-circle.com

http://indianajonesandthegreatcircle.com

Kurakasis further notes that Lucasfilm applied for a European trademark for The Great Circle two years ago.

The great circle is a mathematical term that refers to the largest circle that can be drawn on any given sphere, and is a term used in relation to Earth itself. This conveniently lines up with the earliest teaser image for the game, which features among other items a book titled Ancient Circle (it may be Ancient Circles, the name is slightly obscured). 

The Indiana Jones game was first announced in January 2021 and is being developed by MachineGames, best-known for their excellent and schlocky reboot of Wolfenstein. The game is being overseen and published by Bethesda, and funnily enough these registrations have come just as it's gearing up to show off the game properly. Microsoft announced a few days ago that its Developer Direct on January 18 will feature the first proper look at the game, including details on the setting, story, "how fans will actually play as Indy," and the first-ever gameplay trailer. 

There are no real details yet on the game, though one thing we do know is that it's not coming to PlayStation as originally planned by Bethesda: Microsoft took care of that. Todd Howard has talked vaguely about the studio's ambitions for the game, saying: "I mean you can talk about the world of Indiana Jones but it's him, it's the character. I would just say it is a mashup, it is unique, it isn't one thing intentionally. So it does a lot of different things that we've wanted to do in a game. It's a unique game."

Indy will obviously be the headliner for this Developer Direct, though there'll be plenty more to sink our teeth into. Obsidian's presenting the first "deep dive" into Avowed, the first-person RPG set in the Pillars of Eternity world, Oxide Games is revealing its 'Civilisation meets Crusader Kings' historical grand-strategy game Ara: History Untold, and Ninja Theory has some Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 to show off. 

Rich Stanton

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."