If you’ve seen Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 content on TikTok in the days since its historic sweep at The Game Awards, you might have noticed something strange near the bottom of the screen. When you watch any video on TikTok, you’ll usually see a bar at the bottom of the screen with related keywords. Sometimes, these terms actually reflect things that other people have searched for or might be interested in. Other times, the TikTok algorithm will cook up bizarre associations. And in this case, popular videos of Clair Obscur will often include the words “expedition 33 israel” at the bottom. If you click through, sure enough, there are an unusual number of videos associated with that topic.
TikTok is not particularly open about the way its algorithm works. The platform warns users that search results and suggestions may not be accurate when it is dealing with ‘rapidly changing events.’ Still, it’s clear that some combination of the algorithm and users is linking the game to Israel, and it appears to be related to how decisively Expedition 33 dominated The Game Awards. Despite being heavily favored and the most-nominated game ever, some gamers are upset by the outcome and claim — sincerely or for the memes — that there’s a conspiracy afoot. Rather than deal with their disappointment normally, these gamers are actively attempting to discredit the game by associating it with Israel, which has become an online shorthand deployed to make any topic socially radioactive by proxy.
“Netanyahu summoning 3000 billion IDF soldiers to vote expedition 33 for every category for the game awards,” reads one TikTok with over 187,000 views.
“Yeah bro I think expedition 33 deserved every single game award despite gameplay of it being lost media and is NOT israeli funded” another TikTok with over 146,000 views reads.
At the same time, even people who aren’t terminally online weirdos are having trouble computing what’s happening with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. With more than 5 million copies sold, the RPG is a blockbuster success that’s been a nonstop topic of discussion. But in the big picture, there are way more people who haven’t played Clair Obscur than those who have. Perhaps they read about it in the recent New York Times article about it, or they heard about all the awards it just won. Data shows that engagement with the game on PC and consoles has tripled over the last week, so Expedition 33‘s visibility is exploding right now.
If you’re one of the many people who only buy one or two games a year, like Call of Duty or a sports game — or one of the many gamers who stick to one live-service title most of the time — it’s probably not immediately obvious why a game like Clair Obscur would be that impressive. It doesn’t boast state-of-the-art graphics. It doesn’t have A-list celebrities in major roles. It’s styled like a JRPG, which is not the most mainstream of genres.
There are also plenty of onlookers who are unhappy with Expedition 33’s TGA success, which furthers the spread of disgruntled videos and comments on TikTok — and by extension, the suggested search term that connects the game with Israel. Discourse over its eligibility for awards like best indie has flowed since the nominees were announced, in part because the game did have millions of dollars in budget and the backing of a publisher. Clair Obscur’s background is humble when compared to heavyweights like Battlefield 6, which reportedly have budgets up to $400M and small armies putting everything together. Winning the indie category has only reignited the flames, especially when fellow nominee Megabonk saw its developer pulling himself out of the running over concerns that he did not properly fit the debut indie category.
A designation like ‘Game of the Year’ will always sprout arguments about worthiness. Taste is subjective, and what one person calls the best of the year might seem lackluster to someone else. Every category Expedition 33 was nominated for increased the potential for toxicity. It also probably did not help that the results of The Game Awards were not accepted gracefully, even by fellow nominees. Shortly after The Game Awards crowned Expedition 33 the best RPG of the year, the social media channels for Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 posted the ‘everything is fine’ meme. Though no words were appended to the infamous comic illustration, and it’s arguably not that serious, it still feeds into the social media groundswell against Clair Obscur. The KCD2 social media account also responded to some fans with completely blank emoji.
Some might even argue that the studio is fully justified in feeling at least a bit disgruntled. I’m not arguing for or against it, but I will note that a colleague here at gamexplore called KCD2 the best RPG they’ve ever played. Over at the r/expedition33 subreddit, which you’d think would be full of the most ardent fans, the thread announcing its win over the category has this as the top reply: “Oh bro, as a expedition 33 fan I feel sad for KCD2.” Some publications are already saying Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 was robbed.
Did Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 deserve to win as many awards as it did this year? Man, I don’t know. What I do know, though, is that every award Sandfall Interactive won saw a different group of people go up to accept the winged statue. These developers got up there to talk about how much of Clair Obscur was a team effort. For many of these speeches, Sandfall Interactive founder Guillaume Broche went up with whoever was accepting the award and said nothing, even as his colleagues encouraged him to speak. When he did take the microphone, he thanked YouTube explainer videos that helped the team make their first game as well as creators like Hironobu Sakaguchi, who inspired Expedition 33 with franchises like Final Fantasy. ‘For those who come after,’ it turns out, isn’t just a tagline. Unfortunately for the haters, no amount of snarky posts or memes can undo the sincerity that helped Clair Obscur sweep in the first place.
