Summary
To those of us who knewClair Obscur: Expedition 33was set to besomething special, there was a worry the sudden release ofOblivion Remasteredcould overshadow the release of Sandfall’s debut role-playing game.
However, these fears were ultimately unfounded because, even though Oblivion Remastered is super popular, so is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Perhaps we needn’t have worried at all, as a new interview fromThe Game Businesswith Kepler Interactive’s senior portfolio manager, Matt Handrahan, suggests the publisher wasn’t too concerned with the surprise release of Oblivion Remastered.
Kepler Interactive is the publisher of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, as well as several other games such as Rematch, Solasta 2 and Pacific Drive.
Massive Success
“We always knew Expedition 33 had a very specific identity,” Handrahan told The Game Business. “When I was in the press, I saw the Western-style RPG and Japanese-style RPG as having quite different appeals and audiences. I knew plenty of people that would play an Elder Scrolls game that wouldn’t necessarily play Final Fantasy and vice versa,”
“Also, by the time that we rolled around, we had momentum of our own and we felt pretty confident that we could stand beside [Oblivion].” Handrahan continued. “I think there were other aspects, like the price point we were at and the inclusion in Game Pass… so we knew that we would have a lot of interest around the game. We were confident in that. And it went as well as it possibly could have done in our eyes. And, actually, proximity to Oblivion didn’t seem to harm us at all. In many ways, I think it just drew attention to quality RPGs that week and everybody was thinking and talking about the genre.”
Handrahan also revealed that, after seeing a second pitch of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 following a fleshing-out period, Kepler immediately agreed to publish it.
Clair Obscur sold over one million copies in three days, far outstripping the expectations of developer Sandfall Interactive. Clair Obscur currently has a similar peak concurrentplayer countasOblivion Remasteredon Steam. Both games are also currently available on Game Pass.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is currently available on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC.
