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The year 2025 has been a milestone for French studio Sandfall Interactive. In addition to releasing their debut title, Clair Obscur Expedition 33, the game’s success has propelled the entire team into the spotlight. However, as is often the case with success, it has also attracted its share of detractors. One controversy surrounding the title, which was awarded “Game of the Year” at the 2025 Game Awards, has sparked significant debate. Yet, this is one issue the studio seems to understand well and has decided to address directly.
Sandfall Acknowledges the Controversy Around Clair Obscur
The 2025 Game Awards marked a historic moment, with Clair Obscur Expedition taking home the most nominations and, ultimately, the most awards. The game surpassed The Last of Us in total awards, taking home nine titles, a record for the ceremony. However, this achievement was in part due to its nominations in two categories not often given to most games: “Best Independent Game” and “Best First Independent Game.”
These two nominations have sparked considerable debate within the gaming community. Surprisingly, Sandfall has shown understanding of the controversy. In an interview with Edge magazine, Guillaume Broche, co-founder of the studio, admitted that Clair Obscur features ” 3D game with the kind of graphics that don’t necessarily fit what you think of when you think about indie games..” Moreover, the game had a production budget of around $10 million, placing it firmly in the “Triple-i” category (a middle ground between indie and AAA titles).
Tom Guillermin, head of programming at Clair Obscur, noted that “the project definitely started as indie in the very beginning, so I think that’s the weird part of it, and now it’s a bit bigger than that.” However, he acknowledges that the game grew substantially in scope during development. “It’s hard to draw a line where you stopped being indie when you started with the same game concept and the same ideas that we ended up shipping.”
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This controversy, he argues, brings important questions about the definition of an indie game back into the conversation, particularly when it comes to prestigious events like the Game Awards. Guillermin pointed out that Death Stranding from Kojima Productions, for example, is technically an independent game, yet there’s a vast difference in scale between such a production and smaller indie titles like Hades 2, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Dispatch, Absolum, and Blue Prince.
In a gesture of sportsmanship, Guillermin concluded by stating that he and his team would have “rather this category go to a smaller studio. I don’t think we really needed this [nomination], even if it’s appreciated,” acknowledging the nuance in the ongoing discussion about what constitutes an indie game.
Source: Gamesradar
