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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's Game of the Year Win at Indie Game Awards Retracted Over Gen AI Use

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's Game of the Year Win at Indie Game Awards Retracted Over Gen AI Use

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won in Game of the Year and Debut Game categories at the Indie Game Awards last week.

Written by Manas Mitul | Updated: 23 December 2025 16:05 IST

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's Game of the Year Win at Indie Game Awards Retracted Over Gen AI Use

Photo Credit: Kepler Interactive/ Sandfall Interactive

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 released on April 24, 2025

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Highlights

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is developed by Sandfall Interactive
The studio's generative AI use disqualified Expedition 33 from the IGA
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2025

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the acclaimed RPG from French developer Sandfall Interactive, has been stripped of two of its several year-end accolades over the use generative AI in the development process. After winning Game of the Year along with eight other honours at The Game Awards 2025, Expedition 33 was also named Game of the Year and the best debut game at the Indie Game Awards 2025 earlier this week. The organisers of the Indie Game Awards have now retracted the two awards citing the event's strict rules over Gen AI use.

Expedition 33's IGA Wins Retracted

The Indie Game Awards 2025 took place on December 18, where Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won in the Game of the Year and Debut Game categories. However, just around the time the game was honoured at the Indie Game Awards, an older interview with Sandfall resurfaced, in which the studio had confirmed the use of generative AI in the game's development.

The IGAs have a strict awards eligibility policy in place that bars the use of generative AI in game development. “Games developed using generative AI are strictly ineligible for nomination,” the FAQ section on the event's website states. When Six One Indie, the collective that produces and organises the IGAs, was informed of Sandfall Interactive's comment on AI use, the group disqualified Expedition 33 and retracted the two awards the game won at the Indie Game Awards 2025.

Game of the Year Winner Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Gets New Major Update

“The Indie Game Awards have a hard stance on the use of gen AI throughout the nomination process and during the ceremony itself,” the organisers explained on the IGA website. “When it was submitted for consideration, a representative of Sandfall Interactive agreed that no gen AI was used in the development of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

“In light of a resurfaced interview with Sandfall Interactive confirming the use of gen AI art in production being brought to our attention on the day of the Indie Game Awards 2025 premiere, this does disqualify Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 from its nomination.

“While the assets in question were patched out and it is a wonderful game, it does go against the regulations we have in place. As a result, the IGAs nomination committee has agreed to officially retract both the Debut Game and Game of the Year awards.”

The Game Awards 2025: See the Full List of Winners

After retracting the awards given to Expedition 33, IGA organisers have given the two honours to the next highest-ranked game in the respective categories, with Sorry We're Closed winning Debut Game and Blue Prince winning Game of the Year.

Sandfall Interactive says there's no generative AI-created assets in Expedition 33
Photo Credit: Kepler Interactive/ Sandfall Interactive

Sandfall Issues Clarification on AI Use

Sandfall has not commented on the retraction of the awards, but has issued a clarification on AI use in the original El Pais interview, which resurfaced after Larian Studios, developer of Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity, admitted experimenting with generative AI in its game development process.

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"The studio states that it was in contact with El País on April 25 - three months prior to this publication. During these exchanges, Sandfall Interactive indicated that it had used a limited number of pre-existing assets, notably 3D assets sourced from the Unreal Engine Marketplace. None of these assets were created using artificial intelligence.” Sandfall said in its clarification.

“Sandfall Interactive further clarifies that there are no generative Al-created assets in the game. When the first Al tools became available in 2022, some members of the team briefly experimented with them to generate temporary placeholder textures. Upon release, instances of a placeholder texture were removed within 5 days to be replaced with the correct textures that had always been intended for release, but were missed during the Quality Assurance process,” the studio added.

IGA named Blue Prince as Game of the Year after retracting the award from Expedition 33
Photo Credit: Raw Fury

AI in Game Development

Generative AI use in game development has become a divisive issue as studios have attempted to use the technology to cut production costs and shorten development time. Several game developers have admitted to using generative AI to create placeholder assets, text, voiceover, and concept art, even as creatives and players have pushed back against AI use in the games industry.

Last week, Larian Studios faced severe backlash online after CEO Sven Vincke told Bloomberg the company used generative AI in its workflow. The ensuing criticism from fans forced Vincke to issue a clarification, where he said that AI use was not a substitute for artists and creatives at Larian.

Embark Studios, the developer of the hit extraction shooter Arc Raiders, has admitted to using AI-generated voiceover in the game. Meanwhile, Activision faced criticism over alleged use of AI-generated artwork in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.

Earlier this week, Blue Prince publisher Raw Fury disputed rumours of generative AI use in the indie game's development. "There is no AI used in Blue Prince. The game was built and crafted with full human instinct by Tonda Ros @dogubomb & his team," the publisher said in a statement on X. "It is the result of eight years of development, fuelled by imagination and creativity, and we are extremely proud of what Tonda has achieved."

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

KEY SPECS
NEWS

Genre RPG

Platform PlayStation 5 (PS5), Xbox Series S/X, PC: Windows

Modes Single-player

PEGI Rating 18+

More Kepler Interactive Games

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Further reading: Clair Obscur Expedition 33, Sandfall Interactive, Indie Game Awards 2025, Indie Game Awards, Generative AI, AI

Manas Mitul

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In his time as a journalist, Manas Mitul has written on a wide spectrum of beats including politics, culture and sports. He enjoys reading, walking around in museums and rewatching films. Talk to Manas about football and tennis, but maybe don’t bring up his video game backlog. More