Already in full hype, the French phenomenon Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has just reached a symbolic milestone with mind-blowing figures. The success continues for the Montpellier studio founded by two former Ubisoft employees in 2020.
The phenomenon Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which has nothing to envy from big productions
Will Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 manage to win the supreme title of best game of the year at the next Game Awards? While the idea seems crazy for an independent game overseen by the French studio Sandfall Interactive and its thirty or so employees, its global success, its quality, but also the upheaval it causes within the codes of today's video game industry, could well lead it to the top.
Because yes, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 goes against the grain of an industry made of remakes, sequels, blockbusters from big studios and where taking risks is often synonymous with commercial failure. This small French independent game with a solid story borrows its codes from J-RPG via its turn-based system (in particular the Persona saga from Atlus, whose fifth opus was more than an inspiration for creative director Guillaume Broche, just like the Horde du Contrevent from the literary side), and from action-adventure games through its third-person semi-open world exploration. All under a bold artistic direction between painting and modern 3D animation.
Surreal figures for the 33 days of Chiaroscuro: Expedition 33
Three days after its release on PC, PS5 and Xbox Game Pass, Sandfall's production had already reached one million sales. A true global cultural phenomenon with its very active fanbase on the networks, which is reflected in the figures: a nice 95% positive reviews on Steam, and a score on Metacritic of 90/100. However, nothing was won in the match that pitted it against the remake of Oblivion from the behemoth Bethesda.
But the beautiful story doesn't end there for the team at Sandfall Interactive. After 33 days on the market, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has reached 3.3 million copies sold worldwide. Crazy, almost surreal figures, which Guillaume Broche and his entire studio celebrated in a post published on social networks.
While these figures are not comparable with titles like God of War or Resident Evil 4, which achieved this score in just a few days, we are talking about an independent studio that does not benefit from the same budgets or the same promotional material. On the other hand, this performance can be compared to that of Valheim, a global hit that managed to exceed 3 million sales in nearly 20 days.
As a reminder, Clair Obscur: Expedition 3 tells the story of Gustave and his family in the City of Light (inspired by Paris), victim of the Painteress, an evil entity that eradicates people whose age is written on a giant monolith, and which decreases year by year. When the number 33 is written, Gustave decides to go on an expedition to try to stop the Painteress. When will there be a film adaptation?
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