Despite a handful of promising trailers and appearances at several Xbox showcases, I don’t think very many people were anticipating that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 would become the giant hit that it eventually snowballed into, least of all the people who made it in the first place.
Calling Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 a success is a slight understatement, too. The debut game from French developer Sandfall Interactive has shifted over five million sales as of last year, on top of winning more game of the year awards than pretty much anything besides Elden Ring and holding on to Metacritic’s top user-rated game crown (at least until Cory in the House DS overtakes it.)
Of course, it hasn’t been an entirely smooth ride thus far. Two of the RPG’s big game of the year awards were recently revoked over Sandfall Interactive’s use of generative AI, which a studio representative hadn’t been entirely clear about before submitting the game. After the fact, Broche admitted that “we tried it, and we didn’t like it at all, it felt wrong” – so with future projects, “everything will be made by humans from us.”
