How ‘Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’ Created An Incredible Cost-Efficient Success Story
by Julian Torres
'Clair Obscur: Expedition 33' (Image: Sandfall Interactive)
Winning a historic nine awards at The Game Awards 2025 and garnering a record 13 nominations, it is undisputed that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was the sleeper hit of the year. What is less clear, however, is that the game was made on an unusually small budget.
Sandfall Interactive, the studio behind Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, seems to be following the trend of making high-quality games as cheaply as possible. Similar to Embark Studios and their crown jewel, Arc Raiders, Sandfall Interactive is counting every penny and expediting the production of games that can go toe-to-toe with any Triple-A title.
Guillaume Broche, the CEO and co-founder of Sandfall Interactive, admitted to The New York Times that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was made for less than $10 million. For comparison, Insomniac Games and Sony Interactive Entertainment allegedly spent $300 million on 2023’s Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. To put it further into perspective, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33‘s campaign lasts around 30 hours, while the main story of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 clocks in between 15 to 20 hours.
Broche points out that one of the main shortcuts the team at Sandfall took was to make the game’s overworld a miniature recreation of a map, rather than a fully detailed open-world environment that would unquestionably increase the budget. Additionally, while the campaign takes longer than that of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, it is still definitely shorter than the campaigns of the average RPG, which can typically double Clair Obscur: Expedition 33‘s 30 hours.
On the other extreme, there is an erroneous narrative, primarily peddled at Summer Game Fest 2025, that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was made by “under 30 developers.” While Sandfall Interactive, as a studio, might be around 30 people, there were still many other players in the fold. The game’s end credits blatantly fact-check the “30 developers” claim.
For example, there is a listed Korean “gameplay animation” team of eight people. Adding the people who worked on localization, voice production, quality assurance, music and audio design, that list of 30 people can easily double. Furthermore, much of the project’s funding came from its publisher, Kepler Interactive.
Still, however, the statistics show that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was made for much less than the average AAA game. This fact makes it all the more impressive that it received the acclaim it did.
Broche said, “We have the tech now to make those games with a relatively small team. Games like this are coming. We are lucky to be early.”
For Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Sandfall Interactive and Kepler Interactive took home Game of the Year, Best Art Direction, Best Debut Indie Game, Best Game Direction, Best Independent Game, Best Narrative and Best Role-Playing Game. Composer Lorien Testard won Best Score and Music, and voice actress Jennifer English won Best Performance.
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