Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Stripped Of GOTY Win After Alleged AI Use

Clair Obscur Is Having Its Indie Game Game Of The Year Award Stripped Away Due To AI Use

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Last night, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the critically-acclaimed breakout RPG from Sandfall Interactive, took home yet another Game of the Year award, only for the award to be completely stripped a few hours later over the game's alleged AI usage.

As first spotted by Insider Gaming, the Indie Game Awards have stripped Expedition 33 of its Game of the Year and Debut Game wins after voting had been completed, and the show was recorded and later aired on Friday.

"The Indie Game Awards have a hard stance on the use of gen AI throughout the nomination process and during the ceremony itself," a statement on the Indie Game Awards' website reads. "When it was submitted for consideration, representatives of Sandfall Interactive agreed that no gen AI was used in the development of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. In light of Sandfall Interactive confirming the use of gen AI art in production on the day of the Indie Game Awards 2025 premiere, this does disqualify Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 from its nomination."

With two vacated awards, the Indie Game Awards have elected to present them to the next highest-ranked game within each category, meaning Blue Prince is now Game of the Year, and Sorry We're Closed is now the Debut Game winner.

Both developers were invited to submit their own acceptance speeches, though they did not make it into the full show and likely won't be seen until next year.

"Since the IGAs premiere took place just ahead of the holiday break, we expect both acceptance speeches to be recorded and published in early 2026," the statement concluded.

As mentioned up top, the show premiered on Friday night, and featured a pre-recorded acceptance speech from Sandfall Interactive after its GOTY win. Now, that speech is for naught.

Earlier this week, Expedition 33 was dragged into the larger conversation over AI use in games after Larian CEO Swen Vincke affirmed that while there won't be Generative AI in the recently-announced Divinity project, it doesn't mean the studio won't utilize the tool during development.

"There is a lot of cleaning of the motion capture data, automatic retargeting, cutting up, the editing — there are generative AI aspects to that, because we have to train it on something to be able to figure out where to cut, where to how to retarget, etc." Vincke explained. "Those are really huge benefits, because nobody wants to do this."

Those words eventually led people to question Expedition 33's Game of the Year wins, particularly after a July 2025 interview with El País began resurfacing in which COO & Production Director François Meurisse confirmed that AI tools were part of the game's production.

"We use some AI, but not much," he said. "The key is that we were very clear about what we wanted to do and what to invest in. And, of course, technology has allowed us to do things that were unthinkable a short time ago."

It's unclear, if, following this unprecedented move to strip a game of its already-won GOTY will lead to more disqualifications. What is clear is that a major awards show and governing body made it clear that AI will not be tolerated, even if it comes at the cost of an awards show.