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- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is one of the most successful releases of the year.
- It achieved all this with a budget of just under $10 million, confirmed by the studio.
- It has already won multiple GOTY awards and is expected to win a lot more.
This year has been totally defined by indie titles. From Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 to Hades 2 to Hollow Knight: Silksong, it has been total domination. What’s even impressive is the budget Sanfall had for its immensely successful RPG.
Sandfall Interactive has confirmed that the budget for Expedition 33 was below $10 million, which is ridiculous for the quality and the value the game provides. For context, games can easily cost hundreds of millions these days.
Why it matters: In the last few years, insanely high budgets have become kind of a norm in the industry, but Expedition 33 proves that if you mix creativity and passion, you can do wonders.
Sandfall confirmed to The New York Times (paywalled) that the budget of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was below $10 million. The studio is also quite small, as a total of around just 30 developers worked on it.
The studio comprises some ex-Ubisoft employees who decided to create their own company to showcase their talent and passion, and they’ve absolutely delivered, based on the feedback and multiple GOTY wins already.
They were able to achieve all this with a limited budget because the game skipped an open-world design and stuck to classic RPG features. Studio head says tech is so good now that small teams can achieve big results.
So far, the game has sold over 5 million copies and is estimated to have generated over $140 million in revenue alone from Steam. It is also expected to bag the Game of the Year award at today’s The Game Awards.
What are your thoughts on Expedition 33 having just a $10 million budget? Let us know your opinions in the comments or join the discussion at the official Tech4Gamers Forum.
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News Reporter
Abdullah is an avid gamer who primarily plays single-player titles. If you can’t find him anywhere, he’ll probably be at his desk playing The Witcher 3 for the millionth time. When he isn’t playing games, he’s either reading or writing about them.
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