Echo chambers are bad, and this is a beautiful example of why.
Did you hear? A new game came out recently. It’s called Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and it’s amazing. It was made in a French basement by Ubisoft’s secret founders, it was powered by baguette crumbs and brie fumes, and it won all of the awards. It made gajillions of dollars a week and because of it we will soon know the sweet peace of Elysium.
Don’t believe everything you read on Linkedin, even when it’s a little true.
There are swarms of networking ninjas ready to distort reality so it can fit whatever point their brand promotes. As a result, we are flooded with earnest non-expert polished nonsense on Linkedin and Medium that would make that dead Nigerian general’s lawyer smile.
Let’s ruin it all with some facts.
By all accounts, popular acclaim, and impressive sales at a serious but approachable price point of 50 USD, Expedition 33 is an exceptional game. Universally loved and well-received, it sold over three million copies in a single month.
The studio has not released any hard data on Expedition 33’s development costs, but smart guesses place the budget somewhere between 5 and 10 million USD.
So, we have a critically acclaimed title that made blockbuster title money at one twentieth of a blockbuster title’s budget. The establishment must be freaking out, right? It’s vindication that gamers want art, and that peace and understanding can unite us in a new age of Aquarius, right?
Do you want to know what the games industry has learned from Expedition 33? Not a single thing. Zip. Nada.
There is nothing at all to learn, no matter how many graphs and analyses the networkati throw your way. Expedition 33 is an exceptionally good game. It also is absolutely unremarkable.
Expedition 33’s relatively small team, “shoestring” budget, and public reception are not the world-shaking earthquake of Minecraft, or the legendary accomplishment of Skyrim. They are the reality of how much a AA-AAA game costs to make with a small, focused team, and razor-sharp vision.
There is more to the “gaming industry” than people would like you to believe. To be aware of the truth, however, would simply ruin the wise, statutory proclamations of the idiocy mill, and so no one ever takes the time to lay it out.
The gaming industry, in its broad spectrum of interests and aspects knows about Expedition 33. They also know, every single studio, precisely the combination of talent, skill and sacrifice required to make a game like that. Some indie studios are trying, and envy the success of Sandfall Interactive. The big boys that are being called out on not making as daring and fascinating? They don’t care. They are not in the business of making fun games.
Microsoft, Sony, Activision, Take Two… they are not in the business of making fun games that you respect. They are large, complex multinational corporations in the business of monetizing video game enthusiasm, acquiring new franchises, and securing long-term residual revenue from their IP. They only tangentially are in the business of making games.
Stop all the sanctimonious finger-wagging and clear the airwaves. It’s just loud, ill-conceived virtue signaling so inappropriate in its ignorance that it only finds any level of resonance outside any measure of experience in the game publishing industry.
You’re complaining to McDonald’s that the meal your friend cooked at home is better than anything they offer, and that it cost less, and that it didn’t negatively affect your health? Do you truly think they don’t know? Do you think they care?
They do not care.
There is no saving corporations from the evils of corporate existence. That a refreshing, groundbreaking experience like Expedition 33 would come from a giant publisher is a delusion that no one believed.
Gaming has evolved from its roots. It now is a mainstream activity, with mainstream price tags and anodyne, vaguely amusing, easy-to-digest content made for the masses who don’t have to have appreciation for the heights of art and craftsmanship.
They just want another touchdown, and the industry delivers.
Explore, keep your ear on the ground and find the gems. They are there, they are as real a part of the industry as Madden 394 or Call of Duty Gray Soul Black Ops 15. There are dozens of titles worthy of standing shoulder to shoulder next to Expedition 33, and there are going to be more, soon, and often.
Enjoy them as you please, or just go have some popcorn fun. Gaming is a wide, broad field of interest with something for everyone. Maybe try learning that.