Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Would’ve Been Nearly Impossible to Greenlight at a Big Company; Would’ve Taken 25 Years to Finish Claims Sandfall Boss
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In case you didn’t know, Sandfall Interactive’s boss Guillaume Broche, was a former Ubisoft employee who worked as a Brand Development Manager/Narrative Lead before starting his own studio that released the hit RPG. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Why did Broche go through all the trouble of establishing his own studio, finding a publisher for Expedition 33 instead of just pitching the game to Ubisoft? It’s due to the project most likely not getting the green light.
This was something Broche confirmed in a video interview with French content creator Pouce Cafe. According to Broche, approving a game like Expedition 33 with an original IP, characters is extremely hard, and a dev would normally have to be pretty high up in the food chain to even get the chance to pitch it to the corporate bigwigs.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Would Have Taken 25 Years to Make If in a Big Company
Broche shares (via machine translation), “Yeah, very clearly. Projects like these—with new IPs, original stories, completely original characters—are super hard to push through in a big company. There are a lot of approval steps, and in general, in big structures, you already have to have proven yourself and be pretty high up in the hierarchy just to have a chance at pitching this kind of project.”
While a logical assumption is that a bigger studio would have made developing the game easier, that wouldn’t be the case, as Broche thinks that if a big company were behind it, it would take decades to make. “So yeah, for me, a project like this would’ve taken 25 years to make in a big company. And I don’t have that much patience. We also wanted to do things our own way and really create an atmosphere. That’s what this game is—creating a vibe,” shares the studio boss.
Broche also mentions how Sandfall’s being an indie studio helped develop the game the “right” way, stating, “And I think if we succeeded, it’s also because we did things right. We got some really nice offices, with a big garden—we play pétanque every lunchtime, which even shows up in the game. To create a game that feels passionate, we really needed that “group of friends making something together” vibe.
“That’s something you can really only do in an indie studio. The game might seem big, but here in Montpellier, we’re only 25 people. We all know each other well. So yeah, it’s much harder to pull something like this off in a big studio than in a small one. But starting your own studio is super hard too—it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a lot of work. As a founder, you get very few vacations and sleepless nights for a few years. But it’s worth it. Totally worth it,” finished Broche
Given how Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a turn-based RPG that’s not open-world and doesn’t have the appeal of an established IP, I get where Broche is coming from. On paper, it wouldn’t make a lot of sense to approve a project like Expedition 33, but that’s exactly what publisher Kepler Interactive did, and it’s paying off big-time.
Since its release, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has been a certified hit both critically and commercially, and it is now the highest-rated title of 2025. Hopefully, other game publishers take notice of the game and push for more risky projects since that’s how we see titles like these come out of nowhere and hit us like a truck.
If you’ve finished the game and looking forward to more of it, the developers have said they aren’t opposed to crafting DLC, though nothing has been announced yet.
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