Clair Obscur Expedition 33 Breaks The Game Industry!
- AfroCloud
- May 24
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 22
An industry broken even further by an absolute masterpiece by a small, passionate team!
Since its release, Clair Obscur Expedition 33 has been a revelation—a revelation that is beloved and needed. The game sold 1 million copies in 3 days after launch. It has reached a whopping 145,000 concurrent users on Steam, beating its previous concurrent user record of 120,000 from its launch weekend.
No one expected Expedition 33 to achieve this much success! But how did they do? How did a team of 30+ developers create a game of this magnitude? How did they expose and break the gaming industry?
We will answer these questions and much more. Plus, we’ll be diving into the insane origin story of Clair Obscur Expedition 33’s development. For starters, I can tell that this origin story is just as incredible and insane as Expedition 33’s ever-blooming success.
A Miraculous Origin Story
Guillaume Broche, the creative director and CEO of Sandfall Interactive, used to work for Ubisoft. He grew bored with his position, along with working on uninspired AAA games. Knowing it would take over 20 years for an AAA studio to greenlight a new IP like Clair Obscur Expedition 33. He quit the company to pursue his passion.
Broche reached a point where he needed help with the project. Broche found that help from the most unlikely places. He found his composer, Lorien Testard, on SoundCloud. He recruited him from an exchange on the streaming platform.
Broche discovered his head writer, Jennifer Svedberg-Yen, through Reddit. Initially, Svedberg-Yen auditioned for a voice role in the game. Before this, Svedberg Yen had never done voice acting. Instead, she became the head writer of Expedition 33.
Broche says that it was massive luck that he was to find and recruit his team. All of his staff were people looking for new creative outlets, thanks to being under lockdown during the pandemic.
In addition to Testard and Svedberg-Yen, Broche recruited his team of 30 exceptional developers. It’s astounding that a small team was able to create a game with so much quality and love. Most of the developers were new to creating games!
Outside Help
While Sandfall Interactive did a lot of the heavy lifting, they did have help from outside sources. They hired contractors. Sandfall also had help from Kepler Interactive.
Kepler Interactive is a British video game publisher created by a group of indie developers in 2021. Kepler Interactive funded the Clair Obscur Expedition 33 and published it. They were able to acquire A-list performers such as Charlie Cox, Jennifer English, Andy Serkis, and Ben Starr.
No Investors
Another aspect that helped with the development of Expedition 33 was no investors. Sandfall Interactive didn’t have to answer to investors or shareholders. At least, ones that are more worried about making money than developing quality, creative games.
We have a lot of AAA publishers who create safe, unimaginative, and boring games. We either get a bunch of remakes or remasters of established IPs like Horizon or The Last of Us. Or, we get live service games like Suicide Squad or Concord, which ended up being colossal failures.
Also, a lot of shareholders and investors aren’t willing to risk their assets on new IPs. This reason is why Broche didn’t pitch Clair Obscur Expedition 33 to AAA developers. Furthermore, it’s why he decided to strike out on his own to create his passion project.
A JRPG Love Letter
COE33 was inspired by Guillaume and the team’s love of JRPGs. You can see influences from classic RPGs like Final Fantasy, Persona, Legend of Dragoons, and many others. And adding action and real-time elements from games like Lost Odyssey.
Some of Guillaume’s favorite games are Final Fantasy 8 and Persona 3. Guillaume is also a fan of Devil May Cry. You can see aspects of FF10 and Persona’s battle mechanics and aesthetics. Also, the game’s parrying and dodging features are from action games like DMC and Sekiro. QTEs are influenced by the Legend of Dragoons and Super Mario RPGs.
The influences of FF, Persona, and other JRPGS don’t stop with combat. You can find elements of JRPGS in other aspects. COE33’s story is similar to Final Fantasy X, as an omnipotent entity, such as the Paintress, erases the lives of citizens in their world.
Expedition 33 Is What Gamers Want!
The meteoric success of COE33 proves that this game is what players want. We want to play fun and creative games. We want games that have a good art direction, a good story and a good cast of characters.
Expedition 33’s success follows in the footsteps of games like Baldur's Gate 3 and Astro Bot. These games were made by developers who love gaming. These developers made these games because they wanted to play them, too. Additionally, gamers wanted to play them too.
Astro Bot and Baldur's Gate 3 were GOTY winners. Sven Vincke, the CEO of Larian Studios, made this potent statement during his speech at the Game Awards 2024. A powerful speech that resonates with developers and gamers alike.
"It's stupidly simple, but somehow it keeps on getting lost. A studio makes a game because they want to make a game, they want to play themselves. They created it because it hadn't been created before. They didn't make it to increase market share. They didn't make it to serve the brand. They didn't have to meet arbitrary sales targets, or fear being laid off if they didn't meet those targets." – Sven Vincke
A Major Shift Is Coming
Clair Obscur Expedition 33 and Split Fiction have already earned their claims for GOTY. These are double AA games. They were made with the same passion and dedication as previous GOTY winners and candidates.
Most importantly, all of these games are creative and fun. Clair Obscur Expedition 33 is the latest and greatest example. COE33 is a beautiful, fun, and impactful game with masterful art direction, story, characters, combat, and performances. And it will continue to shift the gaming industry in a major way.
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