This month Claire Obscur: The 33rd Expedition cleaned the house completely at the Golden Joystick Awards 2025 with seven trophieswhich corresponds to a record previously owned only by Baldur's Gate 3. This is a really good company, but the team behind the French RPG can't believe it.
Talking to Radio Times Gaming After the show, art director Nicholas Maxon-Francombe called the record-breaking night “completely surreal” because the team “never set out to win all these awards, we just wanted to make a game that we thought we liked.” [and] we thought other players would like it.”
Devorah Wilde, who played the roles of Laezel and Clea in both games, said: “After Baldur's Gate 3, I didn't think we'd be in this position so soon, and so it's absolutely wild to be here, and I just feel honored that Sandfall trusted us and the team trusted us with this.”
Alena Baranova is another actress who has played roles in both popular role-playing games, and she said that “it really is a win for everyone that beautiful games like Baldur's Gate and Clair Obscur are celebrated the way they are.” She also joked that she, Wilde and Jennifer English might be the “good luck charms” that made it happen.
Verso actor Ben Starr called Clair Obscur “a game made with love and for a very specific audience, and it just turns out that the audience for this game was larger than people thought.” As for why it had such an impact, Starr thinks it's a “timely” story. “If you go to a convention, you'll see hundreds of people wearing berets or dressed as Esky, and that's not an easy cosplay,” he added.
Claire Obscure: Expedition 33 director doesn't think sales and awards success should change the studio: “What we want to do is exactly what we wanted to do when we started”
