President of France Emmanuel Macron has publicly tipped his hat to Sandfall Interactive, the French developer behind Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a second time after the role-playing game’s record-breaking night at The Game Awards 2025.
Earlier this week, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 cleaned house at the awards show, going home with more trophies than any other game in the event’s history, including ones for Game of the Year, Best RPG, Best Art Direction, Best Game Direction and most controversially, Best Independent Game.
“Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has just been named Game of the Year in Los Angeles,” Macron declared on his personal Instagram account. “A historic first for a French title! Great pride for Montpellier and for France. Congratulations to the Sandfall Interactive team. For future generations and those that follow!”
The President had previously shouted out the Japanese-inspired French RPG around the time of its launch, boasting that it was “one of the best-rated games in history: and yes, it’s French!” He also wrote that Sandfall Interactive were “a shining example of French audacity and creativity.”
Congratulations also came flooding in from Baldur’s Gate 3’s director Swen Vincke, as well as legendary Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi after Clair Obscur’s director said the JRPG icon was the reason he wanted to become a game developer in the first place.
Elsewhere, Sandfall Interactive also released a free update to the hit game featuring a new area, various tweaks, and a couple super bosses that are so tough, they basically broke months-old endgame builds
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead says “anyone who’s a fan of our story” should check out one of the RPG’s biggest inspirations, but you’re gonna have to learn French first
