According to Wccftech, Sandfall Interactive’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won nine out of ten awards it was nominated for at The Game Awards 2025, including Game of the Year and Studio of the Year. This massive victory comes for a relatively small indie team that spent less than $10 million developing the title. Now, the French developer has released the free “Thank You” update, version 1.5. The update adds AMD FSR 4 support on PC and new content like “Verso’s Drafts,” a new playable environment accessible from Act III. It also introduces new weapons, costumes, boss battles, and expands game localization to include Czech, Ukrainian, Latin American Spanish, Turkish, Vietnamese, Thai, and Indonesian, bringing the total to 19 supported languages.
The Post-Award Generosity Play
Here’s the thing: this isn’t just a bug-fix patch. Dropping a substantial, free content update immediately after a historic awards sweep is a masterclass in community management. Most studios would ride the marketing wave and maybe tease DLC. Sandfall is instead giving players more reasons to jump in or revisit, effectively using their moment in the spotlight to fuel the game’s longevity. It’s a confident, player-friendly move that reinforces why they won “Studio of the Year.” But it also sets a high bar. Can they keep this up? The “with more to come” line is promising, but now expectations are sky-high.
Beyond the New Area
The new “Verso’s Drafts” area and FSR 4 are the headliners, but the other additions are arguably more telling. Adding the “Old Key” quest item to the final area fixes a potential point of frustration for completionists. And those new boss variations in the Endless Tower? That’s pure endgame sustenance for the most dedicated players. It shows Sandfall isn’t just adding fluff; they’re shoring up the experience from start to finish. The language support expansion is another huge deal. Adding seven more languages, including some often underserved like Vietnamese and Thai, is a serious commitment to global reach. That’s not cheap or easy. It signals they see a long-term future for this game in worldwide markets.
The FSR 4 Angle
Including AMD’s latest upscaling tech, FSR 4, is a smart technical get. It keeps the PC version on the cutting edge for a broader range of hardware, especially since it’s not tied to a specific GPU brand like DLSS. But it also makes you wonder about the console versions. Is this a PC-exclusive boost for now? Could a future update bring some form of it to PlayStation and Xbox? It’s a minor point, but it highlights how post-launch support can create slight fragmentation between platforms. Still, for PC players, it’s a welcome performance gift.
A Sustainable Celebration?
Look, the risk here is obvious. This is a huge, free drop from a small team. The sheer amount of work—new art, design, localization, tech—is staggering for a “thank you.” The skeptic in me has to ask: is this sustainable? Or is this a one-off victory lap fueled by TGA excitement and (hopefully) a resulting sales spike? The update feels incredibly generous, almost *too* generous. But maybe that’s the point. In an era of live-service grind and paid battle passes, a single-player RPG doing this feels revolutionary. Basically, Sandfall is betting that goodwill and a superior, expanded product will drive more sales than any paid DLC could right now. I think it’s a gamble, but after last night, would you bet against them? You can check out the full details on the Steam news post.
