Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wins Five Awards at the 26th Game Developers Choice Awards, Including GOTY
- Sagar Mankar
- 2 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has had a dominant awards season, and it shows no signs of slowing down.
The dark fantasy RPG from Sandfall Interactive swept the 26th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA), taking home five awards on the night, including the coveted Game of the Year title.
What makes this win particularly meaningful is the nature of the GDCA itself. Unlike The Game Awards, where audience engagement and hype play a role, the GDCA is a peer-voted show. Nominees and winners are both decided by a jury of game developers through the International Choice Awards Network (ICAN).
In other words, this is recognition from the people who actually make games.
Sandfall Interactive's first game walked away with the following awards:
Game of the Year
Best Debut
Best Visual Art
Best Narrative
Best Audio
It also holds the GOTY title from The Game Awards 2025, the DICE Awards, and the NAVGTR Awards.
According to reports, the game has since collected Game of the Year recognition from 508 outlets and organizers, including IGN, GameRant, and Famitsu. That is a remarkable run for any studio, let alone one releasing its very first title.
Expedition 33 was not the only game worth celebrating on the night. Blue Prince, the puzzle adventure from Dogubomb published by Raw Fury, had a strong showing as well. It took home two awards:
Innovation Award
Best Design
Beyond the game categories, the evening also recognized two figures who left a deep mark on the industry.
Don Daglow received the Lifetime Achievement Award. His career spans over 55 years and more than 100 games. The list of firsts attributed to him is genuinely impressive. He created BASBAL in 1971, considered the first baseball video game. He followed that with Utopia in 1981, widely recognized as the first RTS or simulation game. And then there was Neverwinter Nights on AOL from 1991 to 1997, the first graphical MMORPG. Daglow is also an Emmy Award winner, a distinction that speaks to how far his work has reached beyond games alone.
The Ambassador Award was given posthumously to Rebecca Ann Heineman, who passed away in 2025 at the age of 61. Heineman was the co-founder of Interplay Productions and contributed to over 250 games across a 45-year career. She was a board member of LGBTQ advocacy organization GLAAD and worked with major companies including EA, Ubisoft, Amazon, Microsoft, and Sony. Her title credits include The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate, Defiance, and Dragon Wars.
One more detail that stands out about Heineman's legacy: in 1980, she won the first National Space Invaders Championship, making her the inaugural U.S. video game tournament champion. That was not just a personal achievement. It was a historic moment for competitive gaming as a whole.
All Winners of GDCA 2026
Game of the Year
Winner: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive)
Blue Prince (Dogubomb / Raw Fury)
Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)
Ghost of Yotei (Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Hollow Knight: Silksong (Team Cherry)
Split Fiction (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)
Best Debut
Winner: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive)
BALL X PIT (Kenny Sun and Friends / Devolver Digital)
Blue Prince (Dogubomb / Raw Fury)
Dispatch (Adhoc Studio)
Best Visual Art
Winner: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive)
Absolum (Guard Crush Games, Dotemu, Supamonks / Dotemu)
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (Kojima Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Ghost of Yotei (Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Hades II (Supergiant Games)
Keeper (Double Fine Productions / Xbox Game Studios)
Best Narrative
Winner: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive)
Despelote (Julian Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena / Panic)
Dispatch (AdHoc Studio)
Ghost of Yotei (Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Split Fiction (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)
Best Audio
Winner: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive)
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (Kojima Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Ghost of Yotei (Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Rift of the NecroDancer (Brace Yourself Games, Tic Toc Games / Klei Publishing)
South of Midnight (Compulsion Games / Xbox Game Studios)
Best Design
Winner: Blue Prince (Dogubomb / Raw Fury)
BALL X PIT (Kenny Sun and Friends / Devolver Digital)
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive)
Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)
Split Fiction (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)
Innovation Award
Winner: Blue Prince (Dogubomb / Raw Fury)
BALL X PIT (Kenny Sun and Friends / Devolver Digital)
Baby Steps (Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, Bennett Foddy / Devolver Digital)
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive)
Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)
Best Technology
Winner: Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (Kojima Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive)
Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)
Ghost of Yotei (Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Split Fiction (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)
Social Impact
Winner: Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia)
And Roger (TearyHand Studio / Kodansha)
Despelote (Julian Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena / Panic)
Dispatch (AdHoc Studio)
Audience Award
Winner: And Roger (TearyHand Studio / Kodansha)
Lifetime Achievement Award
Winner: Don Daglow
Ambassador Award
Winner: Rebecca Ann Heineman (posthumous)