For all the hate Ubisoft gets for its formulaic games, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 fans should definitely thank the French publisher, as director Guillaume Broche started working on the project because he was bored with his job at the publisher.
Speaking in a recent interview with the BBC, the director of the popular role-playing game released late last month revealed that the idea for the game came while he was working at Ubisoft. Bored at his job, he wanted to do something different and eventually left the publisher to bring his ideas inspired by his favorite childhood series, Final Fantasy, to life.
Even more interesting is to learn how people were recruited to develop Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Jennifer Svedberg-Yen initially replied to a Reddit message from the game's director looking for voice actors to record something for a free demo. Originally cast as one of the main characters, Jennifer Svedgerb-Yen became the game's main writer. Similarly, composer Lorien Testard, who had never worked on a video game before, was discovered on SoundCloud. While this was generally attributed to a "Guillaume effect" by the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 writer, the director more modestly admitted that his success rate was due to the COVID-19 pandemic and people looking for a creative outlet at the time and massive luck, although he did not message people randomly, but only those who seemed to be in line with the direction of the process.
Ultimately, Guillaume Branche's approach to game development paid off immensely, as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is quickly becoming one of the most successful role-playing games released in recent times. Just today, it was confirmed that the game sold 2 million copies worldwide in only 12 days of availability, which is an incredible result considering it's also available as part of the Xbox Game Pass library. This massive success is wholly deserved, as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is an excellent game that no fan of the genre should pass on, as I highlighted in my review.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is now available on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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