Indiana Jones and the Great Circle developers "super thrilled" it's headed to PlayStation

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle wasn’t playable at Gamescom 2024 – but that didn’t stop MachineGames’ upcoming adventure leaving a huge impression on the preceedings nonetheless.

Of course, attendees could head over to Bethesda’s heaving showfloor stand and watch a hefty slice of gameplay – the same presentation Eurogamer had an early chance to report back on last week. But the real talk in Gamescom’s halls was on the bombshell reveal this Bethesda blockbuster was also coming to PlayStation – and only a few months after its Xbox debut.

When I sat down for a chat with the game’s creative director Axel Torvenius and design director Jens Andersson, their delight at the confirmation was clear. How many more copies could Starfield have sold it also arrived on PS5? It’s a question we may yet find out an answer to, in time, but it’s not something MachineGames now needs to wait too long to find out for Indy. Also on the agenda – we dive into that controversial choice to make the game first-person, and discuss how MachineGames is making sure Indiana Jones endeds up standing apart from similiar adventure titles.

So, what are your thoughts on Indiana Jones coming to PlayStation 5 –

Andersson: [Lifting hands in the air, cheering] Hurray!

– next year. You’re cheering already! Getting it in the hands of more players, I imagine there’s not really much of a downside for you guys.

Andersson: No.

Torvenius: From MachineGames’ point of view, we are super thrilled and excited over the fact we will be able to be on PlayStation next year as well. The more people that can play the game – who can see all the passion and love we have put into this project and all the hard work – the merrier.

Was this something you initially didn’t think was going to happen? Or did you know, or hope, this would?

Torvenius: We can’t share the decision making…

Andersson: But it’s something we wanted to do. And it’s happening, so, yay [cheers again].

Torvenius: It’s something we’re excited about for sure.

Presumably launching the other side of Christmas means you have further time to polish it now, for PS5?

Andersson: Yeah, absolutely. And this is also the opportunity to mention our technology is based on id Tech. We have our own, modified, version of id Tech, but it is originally a multi-platform engine. So we have a great start to it already.

I’ve seen the game compared this week to Riddick, and also, obviously, Uncharted.

Andersson: Two very different games!

Torvenius: And this is a very different game also.

With Uncharted it makes sense, since Uncharted was in-part inspired by Indy.

Andersson: Yeah, it makes sense.

How do you ensure that what you’re doing with Indy does evolve the genre or surpass the games people are thinking it’s similar to, so it does stand out and be something we’ve not seen before?

Torvenius: This is a very interesting question and something we could talk about for a period of time! Yes, obviously, there’s a lot of good adventure games out there we also appreciate and love. But what we have set out to do within Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is very different. We very early on took the decision that, without a doubt, this is first-person. We have also worked very hard to dissect and analyse the IP and the character of the franchise, looking at the early movies. Quite quickly, then, you get a framework which allows you to see the boundaries if you want to hit the tone of that IP. It also gives you a framework for what we do to hit the tone of the IP. When we had those components fleshed out, we were already on such a different path to those games.