Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 debuted to positive reviews and has swept up many accolades from The Game Awards 2025, including the coveted Game of the Year award. The same trend followed during the Indie Game Awards on December 18th, where Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 secured more wins: Best Debut Game and Game of the Year. The Clair Obscur team had little time to celebrate– the IGA Nomination Committee officially rescinded the awards of Best Debut Game and Game of the Year from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on Saturday, December 20th.
The IGAs Nomination Committee is officially retracting Debut Game and Game of the Year, awarding both categories to new recipients. Additionally, we are retracting one of the Indie Vanguard recipients.
Full details can be found in our FAQ under Game Eligibility: www.indiegameawards.gg/faq
— The Indie Game Awards (@indiegameawards.gg) December 20, 2025 at 10:45 AM
The announcement comes after Sandfall Interactive, the game studio that brought Clair Obscur to life, confirmed that there was generative AI used in the development of the game, unbeknownst to the IGA Committee. There was no disclosure at the time of submittal that AI was used in the game development, which is against the rules for the Indie Game Awards. Polygon reported on the rescinded awards as well, noting that the head of Sandfall Interactive, François Meurisse, conducted an interview with Spanish outlet, El Pais, close to the launch date of Clair Obscure, where he admitted that generative AI was used for game development:
“We used some AI, but not much,” he said (via Google Translate). “The key is that we were very clear about what we wanted to do and where to invest our efforts. And, of course, technology has allowed us to do things that were unthinkable not long ago.”
According to the Polygon article, the use of generative AI was used as a placeholder for texture in the backgrounds but were swiftly removed via a patch five days after the game released. Almost forgotten until recently, interview was brought back into the mainstream threads as more companies are using AI in their game development, ultimately being the alleged catalyst to Clair Obscur losing out on their awards. The debate is divided among fans: some feel blind slighted at the use of AI with no disclosure and feel the ruling of the IGA was just; others feel that this was too harsh of a judgement as the team removed the AI components rather quickly.
What are your thoughts? Share them below!