After Expedition 33's success, Split Fiction's Josef Fares warns publishers not to "only do" double-A

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is nothing short of a masterpiece. From start to finish, it’s a cohesive, heartbreaking story, brought to life with stunning visuals, stellar performances from an equally stellar voice cast, and gameplay that tests your limits but leaves you wanting more. Such immense critical and commercial success naturally draws attention from other studios and publishers, but Hazelight Studios founder Josef Fares, whose Split Fiction was among Expedition 33’s GOTY rivals, has warned the triple-A industry not to jump on the latest Esquie-shaped trend.

Innovation in the triple-A sphere has been a pretty hot topic in recent years. At last year’s Game Awards, indie games and double-As were arguably more present than ever, with Expedition 33 eventually winning GOTY. If 2025 – the year of surprise megahits – proved anything, it’s that the biggest of big-budget games don’t always dominate the conversation like they used to. We want new games with fresh ideas.

But, as so often happens, triple-A publishers are likely to look at the success of Expedition 33 and go ‘oh, we need to replicate that.’ It’s the post-BG3 ‘everything needs to have romance’ check-box exercise. I suspect we’ll see many an Expedition 33-inspired turn-based RPG appear in no time, and so does Fares.

“You do hear, after the success of things like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, that the double-A games are taking over,” Fares tells The Games Business. “But I would not be able to live without a triple-A title. I really want to play the blockbuster games. You can’t do GTA for ten million [dollars]. We need both.

“It’s important not to get stuck in ideas, like double-A is a new thing, or indie is a new thing, or ‘blah, blah, blah’ is a new thing. We need the diversity. I hope that publishers don’t just look at a game like Expedition [33], which has been super successful, and think, ‘oh, double-A is a new thing. Let’s only do that.’ I don’t believe in that. You had a huge amount of double-A games that came [out] this year, which nobody cared about. Let’s remember that.”

Instead, he’d rather the success of games like Expedition 33 or Baldur’s Gate 3 drive innovation internally, versus straight copying. While triple-A studios can understandably be averse to risk-taking, Fares argues that there are high-level devs out there that are, indeed, taking risks and doing things different.

“Naughty Dog is pushing the envelope of innovation with a triple-A budget,” he says. “I would argue Rockstar is doing it. Nintendo is, most of the time, doing it. So you can do a big triple-A title but also take innovative risks.”

He admits that “once you go over a $100 million budget, you’re going to be like, ‘okay, shit. There’s a lot of money on the table.’ People are more scared. It’s understandable. But it’s proven that you can do it.”

I’d argue that, while Hazelight works under the EA banner, its games are entirely unique. My 9/10 Split Fiction review praises its genre-hopping setting, themes of sisterhood, and gameplay innovation beyond It Takes Two and A Way Out; it’s a game that, in itself, proves innovation is possible.

We’ve seen other big studios take risks of late. Capcom’s Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is another great example of a major publisher choosing to do something weird, for example. The lesson we should learn from Expedition 33 is exactly what Fares suggests: don’t copy its homework; instead, let it inspire you.