Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's record-breaking performance at last week's The Game Awards has caught the eye of French president Emmanuel Macron, who celebrated the news of its Game of the Year award on Instagram over the weekend.
Sandfall Interactive's role-playing game swept The Game Awards 2025 with nine wins, the most any video game has won in a single The Game Awards show. As well as Game of the Year, Clair Obscur won best narrative, best music, and best performance, fending off competition from Death Stranding 2, Donkey Kong Bananza, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Hades 2, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 to claim the top prize. Be sure to check out everything announced at The Game Awards 2025 for more, as well as the winners list in full.
"Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has just been named Game of the Year in Los Angeles. A historic first for a French title!" Macron exclaimed in French, appending an image of Gustave, Maelle, and Sciel. "Great pride for Montpellier and for France. Congratulations to the Sandfall Interactive team. For future generations and those that follow!"
Of course, this isn't the first time Sandfall Interactive has received public backing from the French president — when the RPG sold 1 million copies in just three days, Macron also took to Instagram to say: "A million copies and to date, one of the best-rated games in history: and yes, it's French! Congratulations to Sandfall Interactive and all the creators of Expedition 33. You are a shining example of French audacity and creativity."
While many commenters shared the President's excitement, some chose to remind him of the comments he made during France's 2023 riots in which he suggested young people had been poisoned or intoxicated by video game violence and social media.
He later downplayed the comments, claiming he had "always considered that video games are an opportunity for France, for our youth, and their future, for our jobs and our economy," and stressed that he "expressed concerns at the end of June because video game conventions had been used by criminals to normalize violence on social media," adding: "It is this violence that I condemn, not video games themselves."
Accepting the Game of the Year award to rapturous applause, Clair Obscur director Guillaume Broche thanked the "incredible team" at Sandfall Interactive, most of whom were in attendance and in costume. Broche extended his thanks to the "unsung heroes" of the video game industry, "the people who make tutorials on YouTube on how to make a game, because we had no idea how to make a game before."
Clair Obscur launched in April right up against Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, with both games hitting Game Pass as day one releases. It was felt that Clair Obscur might struggle under those circumstances, but it enjoyed instant and significant popularity, and would go on to sell 5 million copies by October.
IGN's Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 review returned a 9/10. We said: "Wearing its inspirations on its sleeve, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 paints itself into the pantheon of great RPGs with a brilliant combat system and a gripping, harrowing story."
While accepting the Game of the Year award, Sandfall shadow-dropped new DLC and Patch 1.5.0, which introduces new location Verso's Drafts and some truly challenging boss fights. Are You Starting Clair Obscur: Expedition 33? Here's a Handy Guide for Beginners.
Photo by Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP via Getty Images.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
