Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has written its name into the history of the gaming industry — Sandfall Interactive’s RPG has become only the second project to collect all five major Game of the Year awards. The last straw was the BAFTA award in the Best Game category. Before that, only Baldur’s Gate 3 in 2023 had been able to do this.
The Big Five has been in existence since 2014. It includes: The Golden Joystick (public choice), DICE, GDC, The Game Awards (voted by journalists) and BAFTA, where the decision is made by the developers themselves. Expedition 33 confidently took each one.
To assess the scale, it is enough to recall those who were one step away from victory. In 2015, The Witcher 3 stumbled over Fallout 4, which won DICE and BAFTA. In 2017, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild lost the BAFTA to What Remains of Edith Finch. In 2022, Elden Ring was thwarted by Vampire Survivors, also at the BAFTAs. This award is famous for surprises. That’s why it’s so damn difficult to collect a set of five awards.
At yesterday’s BAFTA ceremony, Clair Obscur had 12 nominations — and three statuettes. In addition to the main victory, the game won the award for the best studio debut. And Jennifer English took the prize for the best lead role — she voiced Maelle.
Therefore, Sandfall Interactive created an RPG that the crowd, critics, and colleagues liked. To understand how rare this combination is, it’s worth understanding the awards themselves — each of the five has its own voting pool and its own selection logic.
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Guide to the “Big Five”: What is the difference between the criteria of the main prizes of the world
Five statuettes — and five completely different juries behind them. Each award has its own logic, its own voting pool, and its own cockroaches. To pick up the kit, the game must go to four categories of people at once: a schoolboy with a gamepad, a seasoned journalist from a specialized publication, an animator from a neighboring studio, and a BAFTA academic in a tweed jacket. The task is unprecedented in complexity — on the verge of fantasy. We’re figuring out who decides what is considered the “game of the year” and how.
Why are TGA and BAFTA constantly at odds?
The Game Awards are, in fact, a barometer of the entire industry. About 90% of the vote was given to the international press: Kotaku, IGN, Eurogamer, GameSpot and dozens more editorial offices. Journalists think in terms of sales, cultural influence, and technological breakthroughs. Hence the logical victories of Elden Ring, God of War Ragnarok and Baldur’s Gate 3, projects that set the benchmark for the entire market.
BAFTA works differently. The British Academy is very mixed up with cinematographers, and the game is analyzed there as a full-fledged work of art: a scenic arch, a production, an artist’s work, an acting performance. The cinematic approach is in its purest form. Hence the victories that make AAA fans’ jaws drop. What Remains of Edith Finch beat Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Vampire Survivors, a penny roguelike game, has been moved by Elden Ring. A little game with an author’s statement beats a blockbuster if it hits the academic taste. This is not a bug — it’s a feature of the award.
Where the developers themselves vote?
DICE and GDC Choice Awards are often lumped together, although these are two different stories. DICE is a formal academy (Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences) with membership fees and disciplinary committees: game design, sound, animation, visual, narrative. The voting is closed, with normalization by category, so that one studio does not pull everything due to the mass turnout of its employees. The expertise is maximum, the result is appropriately verified.
GDC Choice Awards is a completely different cuisine. This is, in fact, a popular referendum within the workshop. Any registered participant of the Game Developers Conference can nominate, and the final bulletin goes to the entire developer community. No academies, no contributions —pure “what colleagues consider the best.” DICE rewards maturity of execution. GDC — the boldness of the idea and the risk of the author. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 took both, and this happens once every few years.
What does the Golden Joystick charge?
The oldest gaming award on the planet has been awarded since 1983, by the way. It works on a net turnout: in recent seasons, up to 14 million votes have been recorded, and this is not a clickbait, but the real numbers of the GamesRadar+ platform. The mechanics are outrageously simple. The editors are putting together a shortlist, followed by a fandom race in an open online voting. Whoever mobilized the community is the king.
Therefore, winning the Joystick speaks not so much about the quality of the product as about the density of the fanbase around it. And then Expedition 33 pulled a completely unexpected feint. The game won the prize without a sequel train, without a franchise base, without many years of hype in social networks. It’s just a debut from an unknown French studio, which was massively voted for by the public. The rarest case for the award, where Call of Duty and Elden Ring usually reign.
Each of the five awards has its own criteria for the “game of the year”. Therefore, the “Big Five” is not five ticks in a row, but five fundamentally different exams. Sandfall Interactive has passed every last one.
