Clair Obscur’s Award Season Domination Continues
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not slowing down after its huge success at The Game Awards. The stylish RPG is now targeting another major stage: the Game Developers Choice Awards, where it has been nominated for eight of the nine possible categories.
For a new IP and a debut game from a fresh studio, that is an incredible achievement. Expedition 33 clearly struck a chord not just with players, but with developers as well.
The nominations include:
- Best Audio
- Best Debut
- Best Design
- Innovation Award
- Best Narrative
- Best Technology
- Best Visual Art
- Game of the Year
The only category it missed is Social Impact. That means almost every part of the game’s production from story and sound to visuals and tech impressed industry professionals enough to earn a nod.
The Game Developers Choice Awards are particularly meaningful because they are voted on by game developers themselves. These are people who live and breathe engine quirks, pipelines, design challenges, and production nightmares. When they highlight a game in so many categories, it suggests there is real craft and innovation behind the hype.
What Makes Expedition 33 Stand Out
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not just another RPG. PC Gamer’s reviewer described it as something they had never quite played before. One of the most talked about aspects is its unusual combat system, which blends real time elements with turn based structure.
Instead of sticking to classic menu based turns, Expedition 33 throws in a parry mechanic usually seen in action games. During turn based encounters, players are asked to react in real time to incoming attacks, which gives a physical, timing based edge to what is normally a purely strategic system.
Not everyone is completely sold on this hybrid approach. The reviewer felt that the real time half and the turn based half can feel at odds with one another. But even when it divides opinion, the system is clearly bold and experimental. That type of risk taking is exactly what the Innovation Award and Best Design categories tend to recognize.
Beyond its mechanics, people have fallen in love with the cast and characters. The performances blend voice acting with motion capture to bring personality and emotion to the screen. Charlie Cox, known from Daredevil, received a Game Awards nomination for his voice work on Expedition 33. In a very humble move, he redirected much of the credit to motion capture actor Maxence Cazorla, whose physical performance underpins the character you see on screen.
The game has also become a point of national pride in France. President Emmanuel Macron has publicly shouted it out more than once, calling it a source of pride for Montpellier and for the country as a whole. It is rare for a head of state to step into the conversation around a specific PC title, which shows how large its cultural impact has become.
Breaking Records and What Comes Next
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the first major release from developer Sandfall Interactive, which makes its run even more remarkable. As a debut project, it has already stepped into the history books of modern PC gaming awards.
At The Game Awards it beat the record set by Baldur’s Gate 3, pulling in an incredible nine wins. It also matched Baldur’s Gate 3’s performance at the Golden Joystick Awards, taking home seven awards there as well. Those are games many PC players think of as generational RPGs, and Expedition 33 now sits alongside them in terms of recognition.
For Sandfall Interactive, that level of success naturally creates pressure. The team has acknowledged that the expectations for whatever they make next are very high. Still, they have said they plan to stay true to themselves and trust their instincts rather than simply chase what might seem safest after such a breakout hit.
This is a familiar crossroads for many studios. A breakout PC title can define a company for years, but it can also become a creative weight if every future project is expected to repeat the same formula. Sandfall’s comments suggest they are trying to use this moment as a boost, not a constraint.
Clair Obscur is not the only game getting attention at the Game Developers Choice Awards, of course. Right behind Expedition 33 in total nominations is Ghost of Yōtei, which has earned five nods, including a shot at Game of the Year. Another standout is Blue Prince, a favorite for many players last year, which is up for four awards.
For PC players who like to follow the cutting edge of game design, art direction, and storytelling, this year’s awards lineup is a great watchlist. Expedition 33 is at the front, but it sits among a broader wave of inventive games that are pushing genre boundaries and technical presentation on modern rigs.
Whether you are interested in deep RPGs, experimental combat systems, or just playing what developers themselves consider the best of the best, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has firmly earned its place on the radar. Its sweep through awards season is not just about trophies. It is about a new studio making a loud entrance and setting expectations high for the next generation of PC games.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/clair-obscur-expedition-33-continues-its-awards-sweep-getting-8-out-of-9-nominations-at-the-gdca/
