Expedition 33's sweep of every GOTY award was an astonishing coup

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 went into final week’s BAFTA Games Awards because the overwhelming favourite, with 12 nominations throughout a variety of classes, all of which it appeared a possible winner in. It had been the identical story at each one of many main awards ceremonies celebrating the video games of 2025, the place the French role-playing sport’s mixture of scope and high quality with an irresistible underdog narrative — an indie studio’s debut sport taking over blockbuster productions on their very own turf and successful — had proved unbeatable.

However for some time there, within the Queen Elizabeth Corridor on London’s South Financial institution on a heat Friday night, it appeared like an upset was on the playing cards. Class after class, Clair Obscur stored shedding. Inventive Achievement went to Death Stranding 2. Performer in a Supporting position, the place Expedition 33 had two nominees, went to Dispatch‘s Jeffrey Wright. Recreation Design went to Blue Prince. Music and Narrative — classes Clair Obscur had dominated at each different awards ceremony — respectively went to Ghost of Yōtei and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

I used to be within the room, and a palpable pressure was rising within the viewers, wearing its black-tie finery. It appeared BAFTA was about to ship developer Sandfall Interactive residence empty-handed, and deny Clair Obscur a clear sweep of the Big Five sport of the yr awards. Drama!

Then, on the finish of the ceremony, a sudden flip. In fast succession (interrupted solely by a well-merited Recreation Past Leisure win for Despelote) Clair Obscur gained Finest Debut, Performer in a Main Position for Jennifer English, and at last, Finest Recreation. Every win bought an excellent larger response from the trade crowd. It was thrilling to look at.

Picture: Stuart Wilson/BAFTA

On one degree, this was simply good pacing and stage administration by BAFTA — a approach to inject pleasure into an anticipated outcome. But it surely was additionally becoming. By making the viewers look ahead to Clair Obscur‘s recognition, BAFTA reminded us of simply how extraordinary Sandfall’s achievement is — one thing that, throughout its processional sweep of each prior award ceremony, it had turn out to be simple to neglect.

When the sport was launched only one yr in the past, it was barely conceivable that Clair Obscur would run the GOTY desk because it has; other than the rest, Grand Theft Auto 6 hadn’t been delayed into 2026 but. Nevertheless, evaluations shortly recommended Sandfall had one thing particular on its palms, and because the yr progressed, most different potential opponents melted away. By the point of The Recreation Awards in December, Clair Obscur was the locked-in favourite for Recreation of the 12 months, and there was nothing particularly shocking about its record-breaking 9 wins there — nor its subsequent sweeps of the DICE Awards and the GDC Awards.

Solely, should you cease to consider it, shocking is strictly what it was. An indie sport had by no means triumphed at The Recreation Awards earlier than. Nor had a studio’s debut launch. Nor had a sport that had such comparatively modest promotion; within the months earlier than Clair Obscur‘s launch, most gamers had no concept that it existed. The Clair Obscur phenomenon was constructed by vital acclaim and phrase of mouth, and by a real starvation amongst gamers for freshness and authenticity in a gaming area dominated by risk-averse publishers wielding huge budgets.

The Sandfall workforce’s inexperience — and the outsider standing of its small, indie-studio-backed writer, Kepler Interactive — make its domination of the awards season unprecedented. But it surely was not utterly with out signifiers.

Exploring an orange forest in the overworld of Clair Obscur Expedition 33.

Particularly, there was Baldur’s Gate 3, the one different sport in historical past to finish a sweep of the Large 5. Not like Clair Obscur, Baldur’s Gate 3 has an enormous license (Dungeons & Dragons), is a sequel in a storied sequence, and was made by a seasoned developer, Larian Studios. However Larian, too, was working exterior the business epicenter of the trade (Baldur’s Gate 3 is self-published). And, like Sandfall, Larian aimed to revive authenticity and specificity to an RPG style which, over the earlier decade or two, had begun to lose its id because it melted into the world of AAA action-adventure video games. (Sandfall may not have felt the necessity to make Clair Obscur if Closing Fantasy video games hadn’t switched from turn-based to real-time fight.)

Clair Obscur‘s awards triumph isn’t any much less astonishing or uplifting for being anticipated — or it should not be, anyway. The truth that it was made by a inexperienced studio on a comparatively small price range makes it a terrific story. However the true causes it gained all the pieces had been its resonant story, memorable characters, the thought of chunk of its sport programs, and above all, the sensation that it existed as a result of its builders felt a strong inventive have to make it.

Clair Obscur was made with love and obtained with it. It is a one-off, however its wild success is much from unrepeatable; I believe we’ll see extra of its variety run away with the GOTY narrative within the coming years, GTA 6 or no. We’ll be fortunate if we do. However I would not wager in opposition to it.