Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was one of 2025’s most celebrated games - until the Indie Game Awards stripped it of Game of the Year and Debut Game honors. The reason? The use of Gen AI placeholder assets during development, some of which accidentally shipped and were later patched out. In this Web News, we break down what happened, why the IGAs took such a hard stance, and what this controversy says about Gen AI disclosure, tooling, and modern game development.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was a huge 2025 video game that received tonnes of awards, including being crowned Game of the Year from The Game Awards and the Indie Game Awards. However, the Indie Game Awards has recently stripped Expedition 33 of two awards including GOTY and Debut Game due to their use of Gen AI.
Expedition 33 used Gen AI for placeholder assets during development, where they were eventually replaced by human-created works. Unfortunately a few of these placeholders were accidentally left in the final game, only to be patched out 5 days later.
However, the IGAs have a hard stance on the use of Gen AI and according to their rules, this use disqualifies Expedition 33.
The IGAs statement:
The Indie Game Awards have a hard stance on the use of gen AI throughout the nomination process and during the ceremony itself. When it was submitted for consideration, a representative of Sandfall Interactive agreed that no gen AI was used in the development of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. In light of Sandfall Interactive confirming the use of gen AI art in production on the day of the Indie Game Awards 2025 premiere, this does disqualify Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 from its nomination. While the assets in question were patched out and it is a wonderful game, it does go against the regulations we have in place. As a result, the IGAs nomination committee has agreed to officially retract both the Debut Game and Game of the Year awards.
