Expedition 33 Now Has Fans Divided on One Thing

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is one of the most acclaimed games of 2025, but one designation given to it all year has been riling up some gamers. Launching in April to strong reviews and great word-of-mouth, Clair Obscur quickly became one of the year’s defining titles. The fantasy RPG was able to maintain that goodwill all year long, leading to it becoming the runaway victor of the 2025 Game Awards.

However, one of those wins has been called into question by some fans, who argue that the game shouldn’t have even really qualified for one notable category. It raises some interesting questions about the state of the industry, especially in comparison to the state of the AAA market. Here’s why Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is being called out by some fans, and why they might have a point.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Is Facing Accusations Of Not Truly Being An Indie Game

The Game Awards went extremely well for Clair Obscur, which earned 9 wins across 12 nominations. This includes the Best Indie Game, which the title qualified for as the first game from a new developer, Sandfall Interactive. However, there has been some pushback to that argument. Sandfall Interactive may be a new company, but it was started by industry veterans, including former Ubisoft employees Guillaume Broche and Tom Guillermin. The studio was also given support by Kepler Interactive, which resulted in a much larger budget.

Although the $10 million spent on the game pales in comparison to the typical AAA title, it’s still a much higher cost than most independent developers will ever see put into a title. This level of pedigree also attracted some real star power, including Daredevil: Born Again star Charlie Cox. One of the game’s claims to fame is how Clair Obscur was made with a relatively small team, which doesn’t include the animators and musicians.

This has left some fans and developers frustrated by the Game Awards’ choice to call Clair Obscur the best indie game of the year, While it’s true that the game does have a fraction of the budget and resources that a AAA title might, the $10 million budget and amount of talent afforded to Clair Obscur also makes it feel like less of an indie game than the phrase usually refers to.

What Even Counts As An Indie Game Anymore?

Part of the problem is that indie gaming is an inherently broad term. Some indie games are made by a handful of developers with a shoestring budget, while others have larger teams that have been able to attract some financial backing in some way. The biggest distinction between indie developers and major publishers is the prescene of established name brand recognition and the sheer scale of investment. While a small and fresh-faced team may be behind a new hypothetical Nintendo spin-off, that connection to one of gaming’s most storied institutions automatically makes the game feel like less of an independent production.

From that perspective, Clair Obscur finds itself somewhere in between AAA and standard indie production. While Clair Obscur is an original story from a newly established developer, they’re backed by a larger publisher and serious investment. It might be more accurate to describe the game as an original AA game. None of that undercuts the success of the title, especially in an industry that tends to favor established IP over original ideas. It could even be argued that from that argument, the likes of Hades II and Hollow Knight: Silksong — both sequels to well-established properties by experienced developers — would also fall into that nebulous AA space.

Conversely, the likes of Blue Prince and Ball x Pit feel like much more ground-up productions, and more befitting of the indie marker. Despite this, Clair Obscur also has the feeling of an indie game, a certain level of shaggy construction and clear passion in the development that stands out from more polished titles. Clair Obscur feels like the sort of game that couldn’t be made in the AAA space, which may be the best argument for the game being a true indie in spirit if not in specifics. While it remains an intriguing question about the future of the industry as a whole, it also highlights how sometimes, even the biggest indie games in the room can distract from other, equally respectable titles.