Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is taken into account among the best video games of 2025 and has gained a number of Recreation of the Yr awards. Nonetheless, the builders now should return two awards as a result of they admitted to utilizing AI.
When a recreation wins the Recreation of the Yr award, it’s often a extremely good recreation. The titles that obtain such awards 12 months after 12 months are acknowledged as a result of they’ve superior the medium of video video games that 12 months and impressed many individuals world wide.
That is additionally the case with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 from French studio Sandfall Interactive. The darkish fantasy role-playing recreation is taken into account one of the vital excellent video games of 2025 and gained the distinguished GotY award at this 12 months’s Recreation Awards.
Nonetheless, this success has now been marred by an incident at one other awards ceremony: the organizers of the Indie Recreation Awards have retrospectively stripped the acclaimed role-playing recreation of two awards: the Recreation of the Yr award and the award for Finest Debut Recreation.
The reason being a violation of the awards’ strict laws relating to synthetic intelligence.
“Zero tolerance” for AI content material
The Indie Recreation Awards have strict tips for coping with generative AI: synthetic intelligence is probably not used throughout improvement or within the closing recreation with a purpose to be nominated. In accordance with an announcement by the organizers, Sandfall Interactive had explicitly assured this when submitting the sport for the Indie Awards.
Nonetheless, because it later transpired, this was not solely true. The studio has since admitted that AI instruments have been used throughout manufacturing – albeit to a really restricted extent. Particularly, this concerned placeholder textures, equivalent to for an promoting column with fantasy language within the beginning space.
François Meurisse, producer at Sandfall Interactive, already defined to the Spanish every day newspaper El País that some placeholder photos and belongings from the Unreal Engine Market have been used throughout improvement – however at all times with the intention of changing them with handmade photos and objects for the discharge.
A number of textures have been by chance left within the recreation as a result of they have been neglected throughout the high quality assurance course of. Nonetheless, simply 5 days after launch, the affected parts have been changed with the proper belongings by way of a patch.
Disqualification regardless of patch
Nonetheless, that is no excuse for the Indie Recreation Awards jury. Since the usage of AI solely grew to become public data on the day of the award present, the committee felt compelled to disqualify Clair Obscur retroactively. The truth that the content material has since been eliminated and that Expedition 33 is definitely a fantastic recreation
doesn’t change the truth that the principles have been damaged.p>
The prizes now go to the runners-up:
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- Recreation of the Yr: Now goes to the style combine Blue Prince.
- Debut Recreation: Goes to the survival horror recreation Sorry We’re Closed.
An industry-wide controversy
The incident provides gas to the already heated AI debate within the gaming {industry}. Only recently, Swen Vincke, head of Baldur’s Gate 3 studio Larian, triggered a shitstorm in opposition to him and his workforce. He confirmed that his workforce would undoubtedly be utilizing AI instruments to help work processes for upcoming initiatives (equivalent to the subsequent Divinity), albeit just for brainstorming and to not substitute human labor and creativity.
Whereas many bigger publishers particularly see the usage of AI as a practical and inevitable step into the longer term, the Indie Recreation Awards are setting an instance with the disqualification of Clair Obscur: within the indie scene, human craftsmanship stays a non-negotiable high quality function for a lot of.
