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Ben Starr won Best Supporting Performer at the Golden Joystick Awards for his excellent performance as Verso in Clair Obscur Expedition 33. Accepting the award on stage, Starr delivered an amazing speech, singing the praises of Sandfall Interactive for respecting the “people that work for them” as the video game industry is crippled by mass layoffs.
The full Golden Joystick Awards 2025 ceremony is available to watch on YouTube. It clocks in at just over three hours, and Starr’s acceptance speech begins at 2:09:00. In his speech, Starr recognises the Golden Joystick Awards is a celebration of all the amazing video games released in 2025, but “there are many people who should be here who aren’t because they are laid off from the industry”.
Starr lauds Sandfall Interactive because the one thing they do is “respect the people that work for them” and “respect the people they’re making games for”. Starr further says Clair Obscur Expedition 33 is “great” because Sandfall Interactive “wanted to make it good for the people they’re making it for, they didn’t want it to be popular”.
Starr’s speech mirrors comments from Clair Obscur Expedition 33 creative director Guillaume Broche. While everyone is awarding Expedition 33 with Game of the Year, Broche believes the game is a success regardless of any accolades and popularity because the studio has “received so many beautiful messages from players around the world saying that the game changed their lives and helped them through tough times”.
Clair Obscur Expedition 33 wins big at the Golden Joystick Awards
Clair Obscur Expedition 33 was the big winner at the Golden Joystick Awards. It won all seven categories it was nominated for:
- Ultimate Game of the Year
- Best Storytelling
- Best Visual Design
- Studio of the Year
- Best Soundtrack
- Best Lead Performer – Jennifer English as Maelle
- Best Supporting Performer – Ben Starr as Verso
Next is Geoff Keighley’s Game Awards set for December 11. Clair Obscur Expedition 33 is nominated for Game of the Year. It also overtakes The Last of Us 2 with the most Game Awards nominations in history. Controversially, it is a nominee for Best Indie and Best Debut Indie. Although this is divisive, it is nominated for Indie Game of the Year at the Indie Game Awards, so Geoff Keighley’s show is not an outlier.
Sandfall Interactive are starting to work on their next game, promising fans it is “crazy” and true to the studio’s “DNA”. The next game is presumably more Clair Obscur because Expedition 33 is “not the end” of the franchise, it’s just “one story” Sandfall wanted to tell.
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