Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has gone from cult whisper to industry headline, topping The Game Awards 2025 nominations with a massive 12 nods. Not only did it beat every AAA release this year, it did it as a turn-based RPG built by a 30-person team in Montpellier. This wasn’t just a nomination announcement —indie games it was a moment where the industry had to stop and accept that the future might not belong to blockbuster studios anymore (Game Awards 2025 indie takeover).
The nomination shock that wasn’t really a shock anymore – Game Awards 2025 indie takeover
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has gone from cult buzz to full-blown phenomenon, topping the Game Awards nomination list with 12 nods — more than any PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo release this year.
The turn-based French RPG, built by a team of roughly 30 developers at Sandfall Interactive, is nominated for Game of the Year, Best Narrative, Art Direction, Independent Game, and three separate acting awards. That last part is almost unheard of for an indie title.
The Game Awards take place on 11 December in Los Angeles — and if the momentum holds, Clair Obscur could become the first small-studio RPG in history to win the top prize.
The year indie games stopped being the underdogs (Game Awards 2025 indie takeover)
Clair Obscur isn’t alone.
Hades 2, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Blue Prince and despelote all earned major nominations — and the reaction online didn’t sound like surprise… it sounded like relief.
For years, players have complained that the biggest awards went to the biggest budgets. This year, smaller studios are competing — and in many categories, outperforming — giant publishers.
The Top Nominees of 2025 (Game Awards 2025 indie takeover)
Instead of one token indie nominee in a sea of sequels, indies now are the category.
Why this matters to Australia -Game Awards 2025 indie takeover
Australia has always been an indie-first region.
Team Cherry (Hollow Knight), Massive Monster (Cult of the Lamb), House House (Untitled Goose Game) and Drop Bear Bytes represent a massive creative talent pool working outside the traditional studio model.
With indie titles earning global headlines and GOTY potential, Australian studios suddenly find themselves in the cultural centre of the gaming world — without needing billion-dollar publishers.
Put simply: the industry is now playing our game.
Behind the praise: controversy over the word “indie”
Clair Obscur’s nomination in the Best Indie category sparked debate.
Some argue the game is too polished, too large, or too well-funded to count as indie — especially with Kepler Interactive as a publishing partner.
Others say it proves how outdated the term has become.
Indie used to mean “small, underfunded, unknown.”
Now it means: vision-first, studio-second.
The big question — could Clair Obscur win Game of the Year?
If it does, it would be the biggest indie GOTY win since Hades in 2020 and arguably the most culturally important since Journey in 2012.
And even if it doesn’t win, it has already changed the conversation.
AAA publishers spent hundreds of millions.
A team of 30 artists in France stole the hype.
That’s a story no award can erase.
The Game Awards 2025 will feature big trailers, big announcements, and big-budget blockbusters — but the biggest ripple began long before the show even started.
Clair Obscur didn’t just get nominated.
It cracked one of the oldest ceilings in gaming.
The moment indie ambition stopped being treated like a novelty and started being treated like a favourite — that was the revolution.
And now everyone else is playing catch-up.
