With The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered unsurprisingly shadow-dropped earlier this week, plenty of RPG fans began to feel concerned for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a brand-new RPG, from new studio Sandfall Interactive.
Those concerns ended up being unnecessary, as Sandfall Interactive announced today, after Clair Obscur launched yesterday, that the game had already surpassed 500,000 copies sold. A feat made even more impressive by the fact that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 also launched directly into Xbox Game Pass, and hundreds of thousands of players still chose to spend the money to grab a copy of their own.
It's terrific news for Sandfall, with Clair Obscur being the studio's debut title. Along with the commercial success, Clair Obscur has found great critical success, joining Blue Prince as one of the two games currently sitting at a 92 on Metacritic. At this point, instead of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 getting overshadowed by Oblivion, you might even be able to say that the opposite is true, with Oblivion being the return of a beloved but also old RPG that millions of people have already played.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a new series from a new studio, offering a new experience to players that resonates with RPG fans. Of course by the end of the year it'll be interesting to see where Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lands in conversations about what's the best game of the year, but already it seems like Clair Obscur could be 2025's version of a game like Metaphor: ReFantazio, in that it's a new RPG on the scene that has people talking about it all year long.
It's also, like Metaphor, competing against a legacy RPG series and showing how far RPGs have come over the years.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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