Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director says it could never have been made at a AAA studio

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s director believes the game would have taken over two decades to be greenlit, had he pitched it to a AAA studio.

Guillaume Broche, creative director and CEO of Expedition 33 developer Sandfall Interactive, discussed the difficulty of pitching a brand-new IP to bigger companies in a YouTube interview withPouce Cafe.

Clair Obscur Expedition 33 Damage cap

In the May 1 interview, Broche said, “For this kind of project with a new IP, an original story, original characters, it’s very hard to propose in a bigger company.”

“In those bigger structures, you generally need to prove yourself first and to be well-placed to have any hope of pitching this kind of project,” he continued.

clair obscur 1 million sales

Broche worked at Ubisoft before departing the company to found Sandfall, a position that he previously told the BBC he had grown “bored” with.

Broche recruited what would become Expedition 33’s 30-member development team from disparate locations. The JRPG-inspired title’s composer, Lorien Testard, was recruitedafter an exchange through streaming service Soundcloud, for example.

FF x Sandfall meeting up

“This is the kind of project that, if doable, would have taken me 25 years before being realized, and I don’t have enough patience for that,” Broche said of his decision to move away from AAA game development. “To create a game infused with passion, we needed that ‘bunch of friends’ making a game kind of atmosphere. Having that flexibility and agility is kind of exclusive to indie studios,” he continued.

Considering the post-releaseacclaim lavished on Expedition 33, Broche’s approach was clearly the right one for him, though he admitted taking the indie route was “not an easy task”, with “very few vacations and nights of sleep for several years.”

Charlie Cox with Gustav from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Square Enix and Expedition 33 devs spark collab rumors after surprise studio visit

Charlie Cox finally wants to play Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 but needs to buy a console

A screenshot featuring Dragon’s Chronicles: The Dark Demon King and the Sword of the North Star game.

Solo game dev promises to add anyone to credits & 200,000 people responded

Released on July 10, 2025, Sandfall confirmed on April 27 that Expedition 33 hadsold more than 1 million copies in three days, taking five years to develop.

Still exploring The Continent to uncover all its secrets in Expedition 33? Check out our build guides forMaelle,Sciel, andVersoto help you make quick work of its toughest encounters.