Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 takes top prize at annual video games awards • FRANCE 24 English

You’re fighting to change things for those who come after, right? Best narrative, best art direction, best music. Yeah, me too. Video game Clare Obscure took the world by storm in 2025, becoming a French success story. It swept nine trophies at the prestigious Game Awards on Thursday after selling over 5 million copies and winning the hearts of gamers and critics across the world. The hit game was created by Guiam BR, a former Ubisoft employee. He brought the project to life with a small team that doesn’t take itself too seriously, even recruiting some on Reddit. All the team is very much in denial still. Uh it was a small project like we had a quite a limited team and the fact that it blew up so much and that it resonated so much with players is like well above all our expectation like it was not supposed to be this big but it’s so cool and thank you so much to the players for making it happen because it’s really thanks to their passion that we are here today. Set in an alternative reality, the game follows expedition 33, the latest task force that tries to catch the paintress, a mysterious entity that has just erased the inhabitants of a village over the age of 33. The game is made alone using the French culture and language, even including a bell touch to its decor. Even French president Emanuel Macron praised Clarobscur’s French audacity and creativity. We borrowed a lot from French culture in a kind of joyful way. We did it with humor and with lightness of touch. So for the French, I think there’s a kind of pride. It’s quite rare to see French culture in video games. It’s happened before, but it’s never been done so openly. And for the super fans of Clare Obscure, there’s more good news. The team is working on a new game, but details remain to be revealed. Celebrate.

French indie sensation “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” on Thursday stole the spotlight at the Game Awards in Los Angeles, taking home a record nine prizes including Game of the Year. Created by Montpellier-based studio Sandfall Interactive, the post-apocalyptic RPG triumphed over industry heavyweights and has sold 5 million copies since its launch in April. Elitsa Gadeva reports.
#ClairObscur #Expedition33 #GamesAward

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3 comments

  3. Clair Obscur's victory along with BG3's in 2023 proves that the new frontier for "games as art" would be done by the Europeans. It's about time there's a new perspective.

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