- Sandfall confirms Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 cost less than $10 million to make and market.
- The game sold roughly 5 million copies by October, vastly outpacing its budget.
- Developers credit focused design and avoiding open-world scope for the low cost.
Sandfall reveals expedition 33 budget
Sandfall, the studio behind Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, told the New York Times that the game’s total budget — development plus marketing — was under $10 million. The company’s Creative Director and CEO Guillaume Broche emphasized that avoiding open-world design and using modern tooling helped keep costs low.
The revelation reframes industry expectations around game budgets. For a top-tier release that’s a leading Game of the Year contender, staying below eight figures is exceptional.
How a modest budget paid off
Clair Obscur avoided sprawling open-world ambitions and focused on a compact, polished experience. Sandfall credited advances in game technology and a small, tight development team for delivering high production values without a massive payroll.
Sales figures make the economics clear. A tweet from The Game Awards noted the title had sold 5 million copies by October 8. At an average retail price and after platform fees, that level of sales would generate many times the game’s production cost.
Embedded post — The Game Awards on X:
https://x.com/thegameawards/status/1975913658724315343
Why expedition 33 budget matters to the industry
Big-budget AAA projects frequently cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Recent examples include multi-hundred-million estimates for Borderlands 4, Skull and Bones, and Call of Duty entries. In contrast, Clair Obscur’s sub-$10M budget spotlights efficiency: a smaller scope, targeted marketing, and creative risk-taking can still produce cultural hits.
Industry figures have argued the AAA model is unsustainable without a structural change. Sandfall’s success with the expedition 33 budget provides tangible evidence that smaller-budget, high-quality games can compete commercially and critically.
What developers can learn
- Prioritize scope control: reducing systems and locations cut costs and polish quality.
- Use modern engines and pipelines: current tech lowers the team size needed for cinematic visuals.
- Marketing efficiency: precise, targeted campaigns can replace costly broad marketing pushes.
Sandfall’s experience suggests a potential shift in how studios approach production: fewer massive projects and more mid-budget, focused titles that target specific audiences.
Looking ahead
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s commercial performance and the disclosed expedition 33 budget will likely be discussed in studios and boardrooms. Whether this leads to a broad industry trend toward leaner production remains to be seen, but Sandfall’s result proves a high-quality game does not always require a blockbuster budget.
For more details, Sandfall’s interview with the New York Times provides the studio’s full comments: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/11/arts/clair-obscur-expedition-33-sandfall.html
Image Referance: https://80.lv/articles/clair-obscur-expedition-33-cost-its-developers-less-than-usd10-million