Expedition 33 Praised by French President

French President Emmanuel Macron has praised Sandfall Interactive for its work on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 after the critically acclaimed RPG swept The Game Awards 2025. However, his message drew criticism from some fans, who recalled Macron’s past remarks blaming real-world violence on video games and accused him of using Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s historic win to score political points.

In the lead-up to the December 11 event, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 made history with 12 TGA 2025 nominations spanning 10 categories. It ended up winning nine of those, only missing out on Best Audio Design, which went to Battlefield 6. As such, Sandfall’s turn-based RPG won 30% of all TGA 2025 awards, securing an unprecedented haul for a French production at the Los Angeles ceremony.

French President Congratulates Sandfall After Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Sweeps The Game Awards

In an Instagram post following the December 11 show, Emmanuel Macron congratulated Sandfall Interactive on its sweep, calling it a “historic first” and “a great pride for Montpellier and for France.” This was not the first time the French president acknowledged the award-winning title; Macron also praised Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 in early May 2025, after the game had already gained significant commercial momentum and reviewer plaudits.

While some Instagram users joined Macron in expressing congratulations and national pride, others questioned the sincerity of his remarks. Among the most-liked responses to his December 12 post were references to a July 2023 press conference during which the French president controversially blamed video games for inciting real-world violence. That statement was part of Macron’s comments on the widespread riots sparked by the police killing of Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old French national of Algerian and Moroccan descent, who was shot at point-blank range during a routine traffic stop in June 2023. The killing prompted protests in Paris, with demonstrators accusing the police of racial profiling.

“It sometimes feels like some of them are experiencing, on the streets, the video games that have intoxicated them,” Macron said at the 2023 press conference, referring to the rioters. He later backtracked on that remark, stating that he wasn’t trying to be critical of the industry as a whole. “Video games are a culture, an entertainment, a spectacle,” the head of France said in September 2023, noting that he was only criticizing the gamification of violence rather than the medium itself. Nonetheless, some Instagram users continued to reference his earlier comments while accusing him of using Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s success to score political points rather than offering a sincere message of support.

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The “historic first” label that Macron used to describe Sandfall Interactive’s debut title is accurate in more ways than one. In addition to becoming the first French game to win the top honor at the ceremony, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 broke a five-year-old record set by The Last of Us Part 2, earning the distinction of the most-awarded game in TGA history with nine wins. During the December 11 event, Sandfall shadow dropped its previously announced free DLC for the game, adding a new location called Verso’s Drafts and an elaborate photo mode, among multiple other novelties.

Released

April 24, 2025

ESRB

Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence

Developer(s)

Sandfall Interactive

Publisher(s)

Kepler Interactive