LogInAccording to Guillaume Broche, it would've taken one "25 years" to navigate all the bureaucracy in a AAA studio just to get started on the game.
Even before Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 became the talk of the town and the frontrunner for Game of the Year 2025, many were already talking about the portfolio of its Game Director, Guillaume Broche, who prior to creating one of the most beloved games of all time used to work at Ubisoft, one of the most disliked game studios of all time.
Recently, he spilled the beans on why he had left Ubisoft and gone on to establish Sandfall Interactive, and his reason is one that many people will undoubtedly find relatable, even if they aren't part of the gaming industry.
Sandfall Interactive
For context, long before Sandfall was formed or Expedition 33 even crossed Broche's mind, he had already built a successful career in the gaming industry.
He joined Ubisoft in 2014 as an Assistant Creative Director, moved to Microsoft in 2015 as an Assistant Brand Manager on Xbox One, then returned to Ubisoft in 2017, where he served as Associate Producer on Ghost Recon Breakpoint and The Division 2, as well as Brand Development Manager and Narrative Lead for the Might & Magic series. That chapter of his career lasted until September 2020, when Broche left the studio to found Sandfall – a move that, in hindsight, proved to be the right one.
As to "the why" behind his departure from the cushy, big-league developer, Expedition 33's director recently revealed that he was simply "bored" at his job and wanted to do something different. According to interviews with BBC and Pouce Café, Broche actually came up with the idea for Expedition 33 while still working at Ubisoft, but pitching it to the studio's execs wasn't an option – he just didn't have enough influence with them.
He continued by saying that if he had tried to convince the corporate higher-ups that his game idea was worth pursuing, it would've taken him over two decades to build up his name and push through all the AAA studio bureaucracy just to get started, highlighting once again the widening gap between managers and developers in today's AAA gaming world.
"Projects like these – with new IPs, original stories, completely original characters – are super hard to push through in a big company," commented Sandfall CEO (via MP1st). "There are a lot of approval steps, and in general, in big structures, you already have to have proven yourself and be pretty high up in the hierarchy just to have a chance at pitching this kind of project
For me, a project like this would've taken 25 years to make in a big company. And I don't have that much patience. We also wanted to do things our own way and really create an atmosphere. That's what this game is – creating a vibe."
Fortunately for the gaming community, Broche chose not to burden himself with the Sisyphean task of spending decades trying to sway Ubisoft's corpos and instead produced Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – a game that has already proven to be a massive success both financially and reputationally, selling one million copies within its first three days and becoming the highest-rated video game of all time on Metacritic – independently.
Even more important is the precedent Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is setting, proving by example that you don't need enormous teams, bloated production budgets, and exorbitant price tags to make a successful game – a message that, in today's landscape, where major studios are starting to push for an industry-standard game price of $80 or more, is bound to resonate with regular gamers.
Whether AAA studios will take inspiration from Expedition 33's path to success or keep churning out overpriced and mediocre titles, remakes, and deluxe editions packed with predatory monetization, battle passes, and outrageous price tags remains to be seen, but judging by the state of AAA gaming in 2024 and early 2025, I, for one, wouldn't hold my breath.
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