Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Game of the Year award pulled ‘after admitting to generative AI use’

The grassroots-funded Indie Game Awards has retracted its Game of the Year award for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, after it said developer Sandfall Interactive admitted to using generative AI.

This is because organisers Six One Indie have a strict no-AI stance, it explained. As a result, the awards have handed Game of the Year and Debut Game to the previous second-place titles, Blue Prince and Sorry We’re Closed.

The awards said in a statement: “As you know, we have a hard stance against gen AI in video games. It’s something we talk about throughout the year when discussing any potential nominees.

“On the day of the premiere, Sandfall Interactive did in fact confirm that gen AI was used in the making of Expedition 33. Despite agreeing that no gen AI was used in the making of the game when it was submitted to us for consideration, unfortunately, that’s not the case.

“That clearly goes against the regulations we have in place and disqualifies it from nomination. So with that, the IGA’s nomination committee is officially retracting Debut Game and Game of the Year from Sample Interactive. Each award will now go to the next highest-ranked game in its respective category.”

According to Reddit posters, generative AI was likely used to create newspaper textures in Expedition 33, which are said to have been removed.

French developer Sandfall Interactive‘s critically acclaimed RPG took home the biggest prize in a record-breaking night of wins at The Game Awards this month, along with awards for Best Indie Game, Best Debut Indie Game, Best Art Direction, Best Score, Best RPG, Best Narrative, Best Game Direction, and Best Performance (for Jennifer English).

The only categories it was nominated for but didn’t win were Best Audio Design (which was won by Battlefield 6) and the player-voted Players’ Voice award, which was won by Wuthering Waves.