Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is still on to match a Game of the Year feat that has only been achieved once before, by Baldur's Gate 3.
The 'Big Five' game awards include our very own Golden Joystick Awards, The Game Awards, last month's DICE Awards, and the Game Developers Choice Awards, which took place last night. The final ceremony is the gaming BAFTAs, which come in a little later than the rest of the pack, representing the final hurdle of the 2025 awards season. Clair Obscur is already the most-awarded game ever, but those five ceremonies offer the most acclaim.
In the past, only one game has managed to clear all those hurdles. In 2024, Baldur's Gate 3 completed the sweep, claiming the BAFTA to become the first game ever to win all of the 'Big 5' awards. Plenty of hard-hitting games had won four out of five in the past, but Zelda: Breath of the Wild lost the BAFTA in 2017, as did Elden Ring in 2022. In 2018, the sweep was never actually on for God of War, which also won four out of five but didn't claim the first prize it was up for – the fan-voted Golden Joystick Award went to Fortnite.
As of this week, however, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 could still match Baldur's Gate 3. It won Game of the Year at the Game Developers Choice show, which took place yesterday as part of GDC, and also secured the nomination it needed for the BAFTAs (in fact, it secured a mammoth 12 nods, but for these purposes, 'Best Game' is all that matters).
In order to complete the sweep, Expedition 33 will have to beat Arc Raiders, Blue Prince, Dispatch, Ghost of Yotei, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. It's managed almost that exact feat before – the shortlist for Game of the Year at the DICE Awards featured four of those five titles – but BAFTA does tend to be a little subversive, commonly voting differently to the rest of the critical pack. Clair Obscur might be 90% of the way to the sweep, but it's that last 10% that really makes the difference - we'll find out the winner on April 17.
