In the span of a week, Sandfall Interactive’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was named Game of the Year by both The Game Awards and The Indie Game Awards. But just two days after its latest win, The Indie Game Awards stripped Expedition 33 of its two wins over the developer’s use of AI.
“The Indie Game Awards have a hard stance on the use of gen AI throughout the nomination process and during the ceremony itself,” reads a statement on The Indie Game Awards’ official site (via Insider Gaming). “When it was submitted for consideration, representatives of Sandfall Interactive agreed that no gen AI was used in the development of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. In light of Sandfall Interactive confirming the use of gen AI on the day of the Indie Game Awards 2025 premiere, this does disqualify Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 from its nomination.”
Following that decision, The Indie Game Awards named Blue Prince as its new Game of the Year. Sorry We’re Closed was given the award for Debut Game, which Expedition 33 previously claimed.
During a feature run on El Pais in July 2025, Expedition 33 producer François Meurisse said, “We use some AI, but not much. The key is that we were very clear about what we wanted to do.” Following the release of that article, Sandfall Interactive released the following statement:
“The studio states that it was in contact with El Pais 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.”
Additionally, Sandfall states that the only AI-created assets in the game were placed as “temporary placeholder textures” that were missed during Expedition 33’s QA process. Once the assets were identified, they were “removed within five days” and replaced by the intended textures.
So far, the controversy doesn’t seem to have dimmed Expedition 33’s popularity. The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, congratulated Sandfall for its success at The Game Awards. Those awards gave Expedition 33 a massive boost on Steam and consoles. That increase may have also been fueled in part by a new DLC for Expedition 33 that dropped immediately after The Game Awards.
