Clair Obscur Dev Wants To ‘Trust Our Instincts’ With Follow-Up To 2025’s GOTY
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 swept up at The Game Awards last month including winning the coveted Game of the Year award, and while that undoubtedly adds some pressure to the team’s follow-up, developer Sandfall Interactive is wary of straying too far from what made 2025’s GOTY such a hit.
Speaking to Edge Magazine (via GamesRadar), Sandfall’s lead writer Jennifer Svedberg-Yen says that fans will have “certain expectations and feelings” now after Expedition 33 — and that despite the team being aware of that, it wants “to trust our instincts and continue to trust the vision behind the studio”.
“Creatively, we’ve always let our North Star be our own personal taste in terms of what we think is cool, what it is we enjoy and want to see. I’ve seen too many TV shows and books be swayed trying to please a lot of people, and in the process you end up losing the heart of what’s there. So [we] feel like we need to trust our instincts and continue to trust the vision behind the studio.”
It’ll be interesting to see how the next game shakes out, especially because the first Clair Obscur was almost built in a vacuum due to it being Sandfall’s debut title with low player expectations. Yes, there was some attention on the game pre-release (partially due to it being on Xbox Game Pass), but folks weren’t exactly expecting this game to break records in terms of how many TGA trophies it took home last year.
As for when this follow-up will launch, it’s probably best not to expect it anytime soon. Sandfall COO François Meurisse says that “we have some great ideas we’re so excited to explore”, but that the team “has time to get really focused into the next game”. Whenever it does arrive, the industry will stand up and take notice after the success of Sandfall’s first-ever release; Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
