It seems like everyone is talking about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 right now, but even the development team themselves probably didn’t expect that it would include leaders of nations.
As spotted by PC Gamer, in a post on Instagram, French President Emmanuel Macron congratulated the team at Sandfall Interactive for its history-making release, saying,
“A million copies to date, one of the best-rated games in history: and yes, it’s French! Congratulations to Sandfall Interactive and all the creators on Expedition 33. You are a shining example of French audacity and creativity.”

Expedition 33 has indeed been met with incredible reception by both critics and fans alike. It’s currently tied with Blue Prince as the highest-rated game of the year, but perhaps more shockingly, it has the highest Metacritic user score of all time. That’s right, not of the year, of all time.
The game has received a ton of attention for being made by a small development team of 33 people, not including actors, marketing, etc. Numbers have already looked impressive, with the game surpassing one million sales just three days after launch and over 100,000 concurrent players on Steam.
Expedition 33 takes place in a dark fantasy world heavily inspired by the Belle Époque period of France, 1871-1914. In the game’s world, a god-like being known as the Paintress wakes up each year and paints a new number on a grand monolith.
When that happens, everyone who is that age disappears from existence. The remaining humans in the city of Lumiere send out Expeditions to try and kill the paintress, but none have succeeded, and the number has counted down to 33. A young inventor named Gustave and his sister Maelle join Expedition 33 to try and save their world once and for all.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.