Would Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 have been just as big without a Game Pass deal? Sandfall creative director creative director Guillaume Broche doesn’t seem to think so. On Wednesday, Microsoft crowned the RPG its most popular third-party Game Pass launch of 2025, and Broche thinks the marketing and word-of-mouth from subscribers trying the game for free helped propel it to being one of the year’s biggest hits.
“Fresh from sweeping the Golden Joysticks and poised to do the same at The Game Awards, Sandfall Interactive’s phenomenal debut RPG is one of the most buzzed-about releases of the year, so it should surprise no one when we announce that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the biggest new third-party game launch on Xbox Game Pass of 2025,” Microsoft announced in a new blog post. “That’s based on the number of unique users in the first 30 days of its availability, which means a huge number of Xbox players joined Maelle, Gustave, Esquie, and the gang on their journey right from the beginning.”
If that sounds a bit like Xbox trying to steal some credit for the game’s success, Broche doesn’t seem to think it’s completely unwarranted. “From being there to announce our game back in Summer 2024, to coming to the studio for the Developer Direct video in January, Xbox helped us get the word out there and reach a lot of players,” he said.
Being on Game Pass also let “a lot of people try our game when maybe they might not have before.” The turn-based RPG genre has a lot of fans, but sometimes it might put people who prefer more real-time action games off. Game Pass lowered that barrier of entry. They could just try it and see how it feels. So a lot of curious players could start the game, explore Lumière and the early game, and realize there’s a lot to enjoy here, even if they weren’t expecting it at first.”
That was back in April when Game Pass was still just $20 a month. If Clair Obscur were coming out today, players would need to shell out $30 a month to have that same barrier to entry lowered. The Game Awards frontrunner is a good example of a Game Pass deal working out for everyone involved, but is it just the exception that proves the rule? As the service gets more expensive and deals for most indie releases get smaller, it’s unclear if Game Pass can keep a good thing going or will continue to enshitify.
Microsoft says the service is profitable and generated $5 billion in revenue, but it also hasn’t released new subscriber numbers in over a year. Maybe the platform will land another Clair Obscur-sized hit out of nowhere in 2026, or maybe this year will be remembered as the one that Game Pass peaked in.
