Clair Obscur Expedition 33 is game of the year

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has been named game of the year at this year’s Game Awards.

The French-developed role-playing game (RPG) cleaned up in 9 of the 10 categories it was up for, with further wins in best narrative, best music and best performance.

It fended off competition from Death Stranding 2, Nintendo platformer Donkey Kong Bananza, indie games Hollow Knight: Silksong and Hades 2, and medieval adventure Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 to claim the top prize.

During the ceremony in Los Angeles, players also got their first glimpses of two new Tomb Raider games, sequel Control Resonant and a new Star Wars role-playing game.

Clair Obscur is set in a world where a supernatural being known as The Paintress prevents the population from growing past a certain age.

The game, which tells the story of a group of adventurers on a quest to destroy The Paintress, was praised for its emotional narrative and use of old-school turn-based battles.

Players were also won over by the story of developer Sandfall Interactive, formed by a group of employees who left gaming giant Ubisoft to make their dream project.

Accepting the game of the year award, director Guillaume Broche – wearing a red beret and striped t-shirt – said the year had been a “weird timeline” for the studio as he thanked his team.

He also extended thanks to the “unsung heroes” of the industry – “the people who make tutorials on YouTube on how to make a game, because we had no idea how to make one before”.

Clair Obscur was the hot favourite going into the awards, and the most-nominated game in the ceremony’s history with a total of 12 nods.

Its composer Lorien Testard won the award for best score and music.

It was the debut project for the musician, who was discovered after he posted a collection of homemade video game music to his SoundCloud account.

Clair Obscur also romped to victory in the best role-playing game, best independent game and best debut indie game categories.

Three of its nominations were in a single category – best performance – and actress Jennifer English claimed the prize over co-stars Charlie Cox and Ben Starr for her role as Maelle.

The actress, who has often spoken about having ADHD, dedicated the award “to every neurodivergent person watching”.

Clair Obscur only missed out on two awards it was up for.

Battlefield 6 won best audio design, while open-world action RPG Wuthering Waves was a surprising winner in the fan-voted Player’s Voice category.

Best Game rival Donkey Kong Bananza won the family game award, and online shooter Arc Raiders won the best multiplayer prize.

Sequel Hollow Knight: Silksong was named best action-adventure, while anime-inspired horse racing game Umamusume: Pretty Derby was named best mobile game.

Despite being referred to as the “Oscars of gaming”, the Game Awards, hosted by its founder Geoff Keighley, is a mixture of traditional ceremony and trailer showcase.

Some of the games industry’s biggest developers will give the first look at upcoming major titles during the show, and it’s thought that this is one of the main reasons many fans tune in.

One of the night’s biggest announcements was RPG Divinity from Larian Studios, the maker of 2023 game of the year Baldur’s Gate 3.

The developer had teased the reveal with a mysterious statue which first appeared in the Californian desert.

A remake of the original Tomb Raider game had also been leaked, but the announcement of a second, brand new entry starring Lara Croft came as a surprise.

The cast of the new Street Fighter movie adaptation, with the exception of rapper 50 Cent, introduced its first trailer.

And fans also saw new footage from the upcoming Resident Evil 9, confirming the appearance of fan-favourite character Leon Kennedy, and PS5 shooter Saros.

The Game Awards has been criticised in the past for prioritising advertising over awards, with winning speeches being cut short and on-stage presentations being absent in some categories.

There was praise of 2024’s show for going some way to address criticisms, but developers have continued to call on organiser Geoff Keighley to better acknowledge problems in the industry, such as the high number of job losses in recent years.

This year, there have been complaints about the awards abandoning its Future Class scheme – an initiative founded in 2020 to highlight “rising stars” in video games.

It was last run in 2023, when current and former members of the group signed an open letter urging the awards to address the Israel-Gaza war.

In the run-up to this year’s nominations, after it was confirmed Future Class would not return, alumni accused the scheme of tokenism and not doing enough to help them build contacts.

Last year, the ceremony gave out a new game changer award to Amir Satvat, for his work to help laid-off developers find jobs.

BBC Newsbeat has approached organisers for comment.

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