The former head of PlayStation, Shuhei Yoshida, personally advised the developers of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 not to label the game as a “turn-based RPG” — in 2023-2024, this could kill interest even before release. The studio listened, reformulated the description, and as a result, the game collected 9 The Game Awards 2025 and sold 2 million copies in 12 days. The story is not just a story from a festival, but a ready-made lesson for all indie developers.
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Advice from a PlayStation Legend for Clair Obscur
At a lecture as part of the Busan Indie Connect Festival 2026 program (the same one that took place in Korea from August 14 to 16), Yoshida returned to the incident that he himself provoked. As a consultant for publisher Kepler Interactive, he had access to a demo of Expedition 33 about two years before release. The game exceeded his expectations — the combat seemed so successful that he compared it to The Legend of Dragoon, a project where he himself acted as a producer. But instead of enthusiasm, Yoshida stunned the Sandfall team: “The game is incredibly well made, but it is better not to call it a turn-based RPG. This alone may cause players to miss it.” A harsh statement, but the market situation fully confirmed it.
The Reason for the Decline of Popular Turn Based RPGs
There is a larger context here that is often missed. In 2023-2024, turn-based jRPGs were perceived as a relic of the past — audiences supposedly wanted action, fast pace and constant concentration. Yoshida was not against the genre per se (he produced The Legend of Dragoon himself), but he was keenly aware of how the market reacted to words. “Turn-based RPG” sounded “boring” and “slow” to many. Let us imagine that Sandfall stubbornly stood its ground, the game risked going unnoticed, despite all its internal quality. Actually, that is why the advice was sounded — not as a sentence, but as a tactical maneuver.
New Genre Description and Success of Sandfall
The team did not argue — they repackaged the description accordingly. The classic label was replaced with the phrase “reactive turn-based combat,” shifting the emphasis to elements requiring real-time reactions. And it worked. The difference is not just in words; it changes perception:
The buyer reads “mechanics” rather than “genre” — and no longer trips up stereotypes. This approach, incidentally, can be considered a tribute not only to The Legend of Dragoon but also to common sense in marketing.
Main Mistake of Positioning in Game Development
What is quite valuable in this story is not the advice itself, but the conclusion Yoshida drew for all developers. He warned: the pace of the gaming industry is deceptive. A trend that is at its peak today may become obsolete after two or three years of development — and the game will still be in production. That is why blindly chasing trends is a dead end. Companies that invest in nearly finished projects can still adapt to current demand. But those starting from scratch risk releasing a product the market no longer wants.
A short checklist for indie developers (grab it, it will come in handy):
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Do not deny the genre — reframe it through specific mechanics.
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Use comparisons to iconic games (like Yoshida with The Legend of Dragoon) — this builds trust.
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Consider the actual development cycle: trends change faster than you can finish a build.
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Test your wording on focus groups before releasing a trailer.
Yoshida himself admits: he told this story not to boast, but to warn against mistakes. And judging by the fact that after the release of Expedition 33, publishers literally inundated studios with requests for turn-based RPGs, his words were heard.
Triumphant Success and Millions of Sales
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was released in April 2025 and became an instant hit — 2 million copies sold in 12 days, nine statues at The Game Awards 2025 (including Game of the Year), as well as BAFTA and DICE awards. Tellingly, the very same publishers who had previously turned their backs on turn-based RPGs are now actively seeking such projects. Genre diversity is growing again — and in large part thanks to Sandfall’s timely renaming of their game, preventing it from being buried by stereotypes. Yoshida’s advice, it could be said, proved prophetic.
