Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is taken into account among the best video games of 2025 and has gained a number of Recreation of the 12 months awards. Nevertheless, the builders now should return two awards as a result of they admitted to utilizing AI.
When a recreation wins the Recreation of the 12 months award, it’s often a very good recreation. The titles that obtain such awards yr after yr are acknowledged as a result of they’ve superior the medium of video video games that yr and impressed many individuals around the globe.
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 probably the most excellent video games of 2025 and gained the celebrated GotY award at this yr’s Recreation Awards.
Nevertheless, 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 12 months 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 growth or within the last recreation so as to be nominated. In line with an announcement by the organizers, Sandfall Interactive had explicitly assured this when submitting the sport for the Indie Awards.
Nevertheless, because it later transpired, this was not totally 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 photographs and belongings from the Unreal Engine Market have been used throughout growth – however at all times with the intention of changing them with handmade photographs and objects for the discharge.
A couple 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. Nevertheless, simply 5 days after launch, the affected components have been changed with the right belongings through a patch.
Disqualification regardless of patch
Nevertheless, that is no excuse for the Indie Recreation Awards jury. Since the usage of AI solely turned 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 an exquisite recreation doesn’t change the truth that the principles have been damaged.p>
The prizes now go to the runners-up:p>
Recreation of the 12 months: 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 in the near past, Swen Vincke, head of Baldur’s Gate 3 studio Larian, brought about a shitstorm in opposition to him and his group. He confirmed that his group would undoubtedly be utilizing AI instruments to help work processes for upcoming tasks (equivalent to the subsequent Divinity), albeit just for brainstorming and to not change human labor and creativity.
Whereas many bigger publishers specifically see the usage of AI as a realistic and inevitable step into the long run, 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 characteristic for a lot of.
