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Baldur's Gate 3 director congratulates Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 devs after they win more at The Game Awards than Larian's RPG did in 2023: "What a sweep!"

News
By Anthony McGlynn published 12 December 2025

Larian Studios took home a lot of statues in 2023

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Two characters standing on a glowing battlefield during Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
(Image credit: Sandfall Interactive/Kepler Interactive)
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In a thoroughly expected turn of events, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 took over The Game Awards in definitive fashion. Widely nominated, the JRPG-inspired game took all but two categories it was up for, even winning Game of the Year. 2023's big winner Larian has been cheering on the fellow RPG creatives during their moment in the limelight.

Swen Vincke, the founder of Larian Studios and director of Baldur's Gate 3, shares a tweet about Clair Obscur's incredible achievement. "Congratulations," he writes, tagging Sandfall Interactive not long after Expedition 33 was announced as winner for the coveted Game of the Year award. "What a sweep!!!"

Congratulations @SandfallGames !!! What a sweep!!!December 12, 2025

Though Sandfall certainly isn't short of statues from The Game Awards – or any other video game awarding body for that matter – the team came just short of achieving a full sweep of all its prospective wins. Battlefield 6 managed to outdo the popular role-playing game for Best Audio Design, also beating out Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Ghost of Yotei, and Silent Hill f.

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  • Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 beats Elden Ring for most Game of the Year wins from awards shows, media outlets, and more

Wuthering Waves, then, got the nod in Players Voice, beating Clair Obscur, Dispatch, Genshin Impact, and Hollow Knight: Silksong. These are some stacked selections, with plenty of worthy candidates, leaving no shame for anyone who didn't get the statue.

At this point, the crew at Sandfall will probably need a bigger trophy cabinet, after taking home more than a few Golden Joysticks earlier this year as well. Larian had the same 'problem' in 2023, when Baldur's Gate 3 just kept picking up win after win.

Though it's worth noting, Larian only won six of the nine categories it was nominated for in the 2023 The Game Awards, whereas Sandfall's got nine out of 11. Suffering from success is truly a heavy burden, and at least these developers all carry it with grace.

Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi shouts out Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 after its director said the JRPG icon "inspired me to become a game dev."

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CATEGORIES
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Anthony McGlynn
Anthony McGlynn
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Contributing Writer

Anthony is an Irish entertainment and games journalist, now based in Glasgow. He previously served as Senior Anime Writer at Dexerto and News Editor at The Digital Fix, on top of providing work for Variety, IGN, Den of Geek, PC Gamer, and many more. Besides Studio Ghibli, horror movies, and The Muppets, he enjoys action-RPGs, heavy metal, and pro-wrestling. He interviewed Animal once, not that he won’t stop going on about it or anything.

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