Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wins “Game of the Year” at 2025-2026 GDC Awards

It looks like Kepler Interactive’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has gone trois pour trois as the French RPG won “Game of the Year” at last night’s Game Developers Choice Awards. In addition to their big win, the development team also took the stage to collect a handful of other statuettes, including “Best Audio”, “Best Debut”, “Best Narrative”, and “Best Visual Art”.

Thankfully, there were a few awards left over for a few other games. Tonda Ros’s Blue Prince won multiple awards (“Best Design” and “Innovation Award”), and the rest of the evening’s slate was given to Kojima Productions’s Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (“Best Technology”), Jenny Jiao Hsia’s Consume Me (“Social Impact Award”), and TearyHand Studio’s And Roger (“Audience Award”).

This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Don Daglow, a developer whose career began in 1971 with the release of the very first Baseball simulation and then just kept going with more baseball sims (including Tony La Russa Baseball) and the original Neverwinter Nights.

The 2025-2026 GDC Awards were once again hosted by writer Sam Maggs, and you can watch a replay of the ceremony (along with a complete list of winners, nominees, and honorable mentions) after the break.

Game of the Year

  • WINNER – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
  • Blue Prince
  • Donkey Kong Bananza
  • Ghost of Yotei
  • Hollow Knight: Silksong
  • Split Fiction

Honorable Mentions
Absolum , Ball X Pit, Hades II

Best Audio

  • WINNER – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
  • Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
  • Ghost of Yotei
  • Rift of the NecroDancer
  • South of Midnight

Honorable Mentions
ARC Raiders, Donkey Kong Bananza, Doom: The Dark Ages, Lumines Arise, To a T

Best Debut

  • WINNER – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
  • Ball X Pit
  • Blue Prince
  • Dispatch

Honorable Mentions
ARC Raiders, Consume Me, Hollow Knight: Silksong, The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, The Roottrees are Dead

Best Design

  • WINNER – Blue Prince
  • Ball X Pit
  • Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
  • Donkey Kong Bananza
  • Split Fiction

Honorable Mentions
The Alters, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Ghost of Yotei, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II

Best Narrative

  • WINNER – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
  • Despelote
  • Dispatch
  • Ghost of Yotei
  • Split Fiction

Honorable Mentions
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, South of Midnight, The Outer Worlds 2, The Seance of Blake Manor

Best Technology

  • WINNER – Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
  • Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
  • Donkey Kong Bananza
  • Ghost of Yotei
  • Split Fiction

Honorable Mentions
ARC Raiders, Battlefield 6, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, Peak

Best Visual Art

  • WINNER – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
  • Absolum
  • Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
  • Ghost of Yotei
  • Hades II
  • Keeper

Honorable Mentions
Hollow Knight: Silksong, The Midnight Walk, South of Midnight, Sword of the Sea

Innovation Award

  • WINNER – Blue Prince
  • Ball X Pit
  • Baby Steps
  • Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
  • Donkey Kong Bananza

Honorable Mentions
CloverPit, Consume Me, REPO, Sunderfolk, To a T

Social Impact Award

  • WINNER – Consume Me
  • And Roger
  • Despelote
  • Dispatch

Honorable Mentions
Herdling, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, Peak, To a T

Audience Award

  • WINNER – And Roger

Lifetime Achievement Award

  • WINNER – Don Daglow

Author: VGC | John

John Scalzo has been writing about video games since 2001, and he co-founded Warp Zoned in 2011. Growing out of his interest in game history, the launch of Video Game Canon followed in 2017.