Deprived of their title of GOTY 2025 at the Indie Game Awards for having used generative AI, the creators of Clair Obscur Expedition 33 are speaking out today on the controversy.
For Sandfall Interactive, 2025 will definitely have been a big year. Since the release of Chiaroscuro Expedition 33the Montpellier studio is indeed in Olympic form, and thus continues to see its RPG attract the favors of more and more people, both among players and fans. big names in the industry. Unfortunately, all these victories will not have prevented the title from finding itself at the heart of a lively controversy concerning the use of generative AI, to which its creators are returning today.
The creators of Clair Obscur Expedition 33 respond to the latest controversy
A few days later the controversy sparked by the Indie Game Awardswho decided to remove Clair Obscur Expedition 33 from its title of “Game of the Year 2025” for having used generative AI, Guillaume Broche indeed returned to the issue at the microphone of the Sushi channel on YouTube. And the boss of Sandfall is then categorical: “Everything in the game is man-made”he notably assured.
“When AI first appeared in 2022, we had already started working on [Clair Obscur Expedition 33]. It was just a new tool. We tried it, and we didn’t like it at all, it didn’t feel right. We initially used it as a placeholder for textures we were missing, but we removed it as quickly as we found them.”.
Guillaume Broche, director of Clair Obscur Expedition 33
The opportunity then, for Broche, to firmly reaffirm that everything relating to the artistic concept and dubbing of Clair Obscur Expedition 33 has on the other hand never been concerned by AI, which is moreover a tool that the studio no longer wishes to use at all in the future. “It is quite difficult to predict what the future will look like, but everything that comes from us will be produced by humans” certifies the Sandfall boss.
One crown lost, ten found
This should therefore reassure some players, a certain number of whom were offended by this discovery concerning the production of Clair Obscur Expedition 33. And even if this will unfortunately not give Sandfall its prize, the Indie Game Awards having zero tolerance on the question, this in no way prevents the title from continuing to shine in the eyes of the public. Especially since, let us emphasize it all the same, this obviously does not erase the other rewards that he may have received, in particular at the Game Awards 2025 where he made a real raid.
Source: Sushi (via GamesRadar+)
