Expedition 33 Benefited from Microsoft Presenting it Alongside its AAA Games

Publisher Kepler Interactive has revealed that, while the surprise release of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered might have been a slight hindrance, Microsoft’s support was ultimately incredibly valuable for Sandfall Interactive’s RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Speaking to The Game Business, Kepler’s senior portfolio manager Matt Handrahan said that being presented alongside major titles during Xbox’s Summer Showcase last year was quite helpful. This came down to the fact that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was presented as a big deal, since it was shown off alongside upcoming AAA games like Gears of War and Fable.

“[During the Summer Showcase] our game was placed alongside Gears of War, Fable and products that are very traditionally known as AAA products,” said Hadrahan.

“It let people understand what it was in a way that I think we would’ve struggled to do if we weren’t allied with Xbox in that way. We couldn’t have done it through a Steam demo alone, for example. It helped us to kind of claim this AA territory in a much more confident way. Because it’s a vague space that exists somewhere between small games and extremely big games, and there’s a lot of ground that that covers.”

When it comes to the release of Oblivion Remastered, Hadrahan believes that Bethesda’s RPG still helped raise the profile of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 since it sparked more of an interest in the gaming audience for different kinds of RPGs. Oblivion Remastered also didn’t have too much of an adverse effect on Expedition 33 owing to the different kinds of audiences both games attract.

“We always knew that Expedition 33 had a very specific identity,” Handrahan said. “When I was in the press, I saw the Western-style RPG and the Japanese-style RPG as having quite different appeals and audiences. I knew plenty of people that would play an Elder Scrolls game that wouldn’t necessarily play Final Fantasy and vice versa.”

“Also, by the time that we rolled around, we had momentum of our own and we felt pretty confident that we could stand beside it. I think there were other aspects, like the price point we were at and the inclusion in Game Pass… so we knew we would have a lot of interest around the game. We were confident in that. And it went as well as it possibly could have done in our eyes. And, actually, proximity to Oblivion didn’t seem to harm us at all. In many ways, I think it just drew attention to quality RPGs that week and everybody was thinking and talking about the genre.”

Voice actor Ben Starr, who voices Verso in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, also spoke about the release of both games last month. In an interview, Starr mentioned that he believes that both games can co-exist at the same time, since they can both attract different kinds of audiences. He also praises the current state of the industry, since there is a large variety of upcoming games for fans of just about any genre.

Clair Osbscur: Expedition 33 and The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered were both released in the same week at the end of April for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Check out our reviews for both games for more details. Both titles are also available on PC and Xbox Game Pass.