There’s more to come from the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 franchise, says game director

What would the Belle Époque artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries make of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33? They’d surely be thrilled to learn of an interactive experience set in a dark version of their own era. Of course, you’d have to explain what video games are to Matisse and Sargent et al first. And microchips. And electricity. 

The hardest concept of all to convey to yesteryear’s brightest creative minds, though, would be franchise-building. Try having a conversation about expected sequel revenue with Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and you’d be met with little more than a glassy stare and a Gallic shrug. It’s just as well, then, that 2025’s breakout RPG hit Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is only set during the inter-war ‘beautiful period’, rather than stewarded by its creative luminaries. 

All of which is an incredibly circuitous way of letting you know that Clair Obscur is now officially a franchise, not just a lone release, according to its creators. 

"Clair Obscur is the franchise name," game director Guillaume Broche told MrMattyPlays in a YouTube interview recently.

"Expedition 33 is one of the stories that we want to tell in this franchise. Exactly what it will look like and what the concept will be is still too soon to announce, but what is sure is that this is not the end of the Clair Obscur franchise."

So they’re going to make another game a bit like this one, basically. The interesting bit will be observing what parts of the original game are now considered pillars of the franchise – is it the setting? The central characters? Or are all those components swappable, a la Final Fantasy?

It’s also notable that hopes of a multi-release franchise were baked right into the game name. Matisse, Sargent, are you taking notes? That’s how you do franchise-building in 2025.