At "The Game Awards 2025" (December 11, 2025, Peacock Theater, Los Angeles), French studio Sandfall Interactive debut work "Clair Obscur: Expedition 33" won Game of the Year. The work was nominated in 13 categories and won 9 awards -- setting a record for most wins in the Game Awards 12-year history (previous record: The Last of Us Part II with 7 wins in 2020). The evaluation shift this awards ceremony signals: the 2025 Game Awards demonstrated that individual design completion and creative intent -- rather than scale or technical spectacle -- functioned as primary evaluation criteria. Expedition 33 multi-category wins support that these evaluation criteria were applied consistently throughout the judging process. The result goes beyond one work success to pose questions about what the game industry should prioritize when defining "the best game" -- suggesting that narrative depth, artistic coherence, and emotional resonance are gaining weight as criteria alongside technical achievement and commercial scale. Expedition 33 win represents an affirmation that a French indie studio with no established franchise can compete with and defeat major publisher titles when the game achieves genuine artistic distinction.
2025's Best Game of the Year — Analysis of 'The Game Awards 2025'
At The Game Awards 2025, held December 11, 2025 (local time) at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles, French studio Sandfall Interactive's debut work 'Clair Obscur: Expedition 33' won Game of the Year.

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