Six One Indie has stripped Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and another title of awards won at this year’s Indie Game Awards due to ‘undisclosed’ generative AI use.
(Not) For those who use Generative AI after
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has been stripped of its Indie Game Awards wins. It has won for both Game of the Year and Best Debut. Expedition 33 is one of the top awarded in all of 2025. The title was declared ineligible for alleged undisclosed use of generative AI during development.
SixOneIndie’s Indie Game Awards website updated its FAQ to clarify exactly why:
The Indie Game Awards have a hard stance on the use of gen AI throughout the nomination process and during the ceremony itself. When it was submitted for consideration, a representative of Sandfall Interactive agreed that no gen AI was used in the development of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. In light of Sandfall Interactive confirming the use of gen AI art in production on the day of the Indie Game Awards 2025 premiere, this does disqualify Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 from its nomination. While the assets in question were patched out and it is a wonderful game, it does go against the regulations we have in place. As a result, the IGAs nomination committee has agreed to officially retract both the Debut Game and Game of the Year awards.
Each award will be going to the next highest-ranked game in its respective category:
Debut Game: Sorry We’re Closed
Game of the Year: Blue Prince
A Video Update
There was a video posted by Mike from Six One Indie on BlueSky about the situation as well:
I reviewed the game back at launch. I fell in love with the story, design, music, and turn-based gameplay. It has been interesting to see the binary discourse around the catch-all “AI” phrase. It appears poised to be one of, if not the biggest, stories in gaming throughout 2026.
Alongside the Expedition 33 situation was an issue with ModRetro, a Palmer Lucky-led company. The “Indie Vanguard” recognition for Gortnyn Code was stripped. This was due to its GBA title’s cart being made and published by ModRetro.
How do you feel about the IGA’s stripping of Expedition 33? Let us know in the XboxEra Forums or make some noise in the lively XboxEra Community Discord Server. If you’re looking to be a bigger part of an amazing community, then either choice is a good one!
Support Our Team
XboxEra is a community-first, community funded publication. If you value what we do, and want to have a direct say in what we cover, consider supporting us directly on Patreon.
All you need to do is head on over to patreon.com/xboxera and for less than a cup of coffee a month, you’ll help keep this publication alive. As a bonus, you’ll find that we create more content than many other Patreon supported publications, and we give more back in return.
So go on, do something awesome.
