Indiana Jones’ The Order of Giants DLC Drops Sept. 4 — Could It Shake Up the Game of the Year Race?

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is getting a sizable DLC called The Order of Giants, which launches on Sept. 4. The expansion was detailed this week with a launch trailer shown at Gamescom, and it takes the story back to Rome to explore the Nephilim Order.

• • What the DLC adds and where it fits in the release timeline.
  • Platform availability and past release dates for the base game.

• How timing affects Game of the Year eligibility and awards discussion.
• Comments from industry figures and a note about awards timing comparisons.

What The Order of Giants is and when it arrives

The Order of Giants is an expansion for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. It arrives on Sept. 4 and includes new story content that sends Indiana Jones to Rome to investigate the Nephilim Order. The DLC was shown in a launch trailer during Gamescom this week.

The base game originally released on Dec. 9, 2024 on Xbox (including Game Pass). Later, the game launched on PS5 in April 2025, and a Switch 2 version is planned for 2026.

Timing, awards eligibility, and why it matters

Industry rules and voting windows matter here. For example, many awards programs, including The Game Awards, have voting windows that end in November. As a result, games released in December often get considered the following year unless voters specifically include them. Separately, The Game Awards updated its rules last year to allow DLC to be eligible for Game of the Year consideration, which means expansions can influence a game’s standing.

Additionally, Xbox Game Studios lead Matt Booty has said that a service like Game Pass needs “awards” to help fuel its appeal and success. Therefore, releasing a large DLC in September can raise visibility during a competitive awards season and remind voters and players about the base game.

How publishers can time releases

Publishers sometimes plan DLC or new seasons to line up with awards calendars. For example, some TV shows have used release timing to influence Emmy voting cycles. In gaming, a narrative-driven title that can be expanded with new missions and performances is more likely to follow that path.

To explain the strategy used by some TV shows, here is a direct quote from Katey Rich, a long-time awards columnist:

When season 1 of The Bear first premiered in June of 2022, it felt like summer counterprogramming, like a perfect low-stakes place to drop a show that was a little bit experimental. They’ve stuck with that release slot ever since, but now it feels very canny, airing immediately after Emmy ballots are cast but before the nominations are announced. The result for season 2 and 3 was that everyone was still talking about the best episodes of the new season — Richie’s big arc in “Forks,” the nightmare Christmas episode “Fishes,” Tina’s backstory episode “Napkins” — just as Emmy voters were sitting down to vote on the previous season. The effect was that Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Liza Colon-Zayas basically won Emmys for episodes from the season they weren’t even nominated for yet. It’s a weird use of the calendar, but it works.

Few shows work on that kind of rigorous release schedule that The Bear does, so it’s tough for other shows to emulate. But just as Hacks is now expected to be a May show, The Bear now has late June to itself. It had some competition this year from The Gilded Age, which launched in early June, and might suggest that other networks are willing to test out the same strategy.

For more background on that TV strategy, see the coverage calling The Bear a “comedy”. Also, the columnist referenced above writes for The Ankler and can be found on Substack at Katey Rich.

What this means for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Concrete outcomes to watch for:

• Visibility: The DLC’s September launch puts the game back in the conversation ahead of many awards deadlines.
• Platform rollouts: With a Switch 2 version planned for 2026, new content can support ongoing sales and player interest.
• Awards eligibility: Because DLC can now affect Game of the Year considerations at some outlets, the expansion could influence how voters view the full package.

Bottom line

On Sept. 4, The Order of Giants will expand the story of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and may change how the game is seen during awards season. The DLC’s timing and the Game Awards’ updated rules mean the expansion could factor into Game of the Year conversations this year.