The Game Awards 2025, held on December 12 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles and hosted by Geoff Keighley, turned into a coronation for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as it swept multiple top categories and stunned pre-show oddsmakers. The turn-based RPG, with its French Belle Époque aesthetic and demanding combat, surged past heavily favored blockbusters like Assassin’s Creed Shadows and cemented Sandfall Interactive as a new force in narrative-driven game design. Alongside the awards, three major new game reveals set the tone for 2026, signaling where big publishers and ambitious independents alike plan to push the medium next.
Expedition 33’s Dominant Performance
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 emerged as the clear centerpiece of the ceremony, with coverage of The Game Awards 2025 underscoring how thoroughly it outpaced expectations by taking Game of the Year, Best RPG, and Best Art Direction in a single night. Those wins came at the expense of high-profile competitors such as Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Metaphor: ReFantazio, which had dominated pre-show chatter but ultimately could not match the critical momentum behind Sandfall Interactive’s debut. For players and publishers, the outcome signaled that a meticulously crafted turn-based RPG could not only compete with but surpass sprawling open world action titles in the industry’s most visible showcase.
Post-event analysis highlighted how the game’s blend of French Belle Époque visual design, intricate combat systems, and tightly structured storytelling helped it stand apart from the rest of the field. Critics pointed to its narrative depth, which threads personal tragedy through a broader apocalyptic premise, and to a soundtrack that reinforces the melancholic tone of its world as key reasons it resonated so strongly with voters. The fact that this is Sandfall Interactive’s first major release magnified the impact of the sweep, suggesting that smaller studios with a clear creative vision can now credibly challenge long-established franchises for the medium’s top honors.
Full Winners List Breakdown
The official tally confirmed that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 not only captured Game of the Year but did so in a category that included Metaphor: ReFantazio and other heavily marketed contenders, a result detailed in the full winners list for The Game Awards 2025. In addition to its headline victory, the game secured Best RPG and Best Art Direction, reinforcing how its systems, storytelling, and visual identity aligned in a cohesive package that voters rewarded across disciplines. For studios tracking awards-season trends, the breadth of categories in which Expedition 33 prevailed underscored that technical polish alone is no longer sufficient without a distinctive artistic and narrative voice.
Supporting awards deepened the picture of a comprehensive sweep, with Ben Starr winning Best Performance for his portrayal of Gustave and composer Lorien Testard taking Best Score for the game’s orchestral and thematic work. Those individual honors highlighted how much of Expedition 33’s impact rests on character-driven storytelling and music that gives emotional weight to its turn-based encounters, rather than relying solely on mechanical difficulty. Outside the Clair Obscur orbit, the winners list also recognized Black Myth: Wukong as Best Action/Adventure and Helldivers 2 as Best Ongoing Game, signaling that high-intensity combat experiences and live service models still command significant attention even in a year dominated by a single breakout RPG.
Major New Reveals Spotlight
While awards dominated the headlines, the show also used its stage to preview the industry’s near future, starting with a sequel announcement for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 that confirmed Sandfall Interactive is already expanding its new universe. Reporting on three of the biggest new reveals at The Game Awards 2025 described concept art that teased broader world-building, suggesting new regions and factions that extend beyond the original game’s Belle Époque cityscapes. For fans and investors, that early look indicated that Sandfall plans to turn Expedition 33 from a one-off success into a sustained franchise, with the awards sweep serving as a launchpad rather than a capstone.
The second major reveal centered on FromSoftware’s next step for Elden Ring, an expansion DLC that promises new bosses and open world tweaks designed to re-engage players who poured hundreds of hours into the base game. By spotlighting additional late-game challenges and adjustments to exploration, the announcement signaled that FromSoftware intends to refine rather than reinvent its acclaimed formula, keeping Elden Ring relevant in a landscape where fresh contenders like Expedition 33 are capturing awards attention. The third reveal, a multiplayer title from Ubisoft titled Star Wars Outlaws: Echoes, introduced co-op elements that depart from the prior single-player focus of Star Wars Outlaws and pointed to a future where major licensed properties increasingly lean on shared-world experiences to sustain engagement between tentpole releases.
Analysis of the Sweep’s Implications
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s victories, as cataloged in the comprehensive roundup of category winners, signaled a shift in audience and industry appetite toward ambitious, story-driven RPGs from comparatively smaller teams. In contrast to 2024, when AAA blockbusters like Elden Ring dominated awards discourse, the 2025 results suggested that voters are increasingly willing to reward projects that prioritize authored narratives and distinctive aesthetics over sheer scale. For publishers, that change raises the stakes around how they allocate budgets, since it indicates that a carefully scoped RPG with a strong identity can deliver both prestige and commercial upside without matching the production footprint of the largest open world titles.
Industry reaction during and after the show reinforced that perception, with host Geoff Keighley describing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as an underdog that evolved into a cultural phenomenon once players and critics had time to absorb its full scope. That framing matters for developers pitching new projects, because it provides a high-profile example of a game that built momentum through word of mouth and critical acclaim rather than pre-launch franchise recognition. Looking ahead to 2026 development pipelines, I expect the sweep to encourage platform holders and investors to back more narrative-driven titles, particularly those that combine strong art direction, bespoke soundtracks, and turn-based or tactical systems that differentiate them from the crowded action-adventure field.
