JRPG darling Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 launched just two days after Bethesda shadow-dropped Oblivion Remastered, which might seem like incredibly unfortunate timing on the surface, but developer Sandfall Interactive and now publisher Kepler Interactive have both been very much taking it in stride.
Despite launching dangerously close to Oblivion Remastered’s orbit, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has been met with near universal acclaim and remarkably strong sales, shifting a million copies in just three days. Naturally, Kepler is happy with the game’s reception, with senior portfolio manager Matt Handrahan telling TheGameBusiness he was never worried it would conflict too much with a new Elder Scrolls release.
“We always knew that Expedition 33 had a very specific identity,” Handrahan said. “When I was in the press, I saw the Western-style RPG and the Japanese-style RPG as having quite different appeals and audiences. I knew plenty of people that would play an Elder Scrolls game that wouldn’t necessarily play Final Fantasy and vice versa.”
The JRPG nerds here at GamesRadar+, a contingent I’m proud to align myself with, have been hyping up Clair Obscur for months, long before we had any (concrete) inclination that Oblivion Remastered was about to be a thing.
Handrahan said that organic build-up of interest, not to mention its $50 price tag and availability on Game Pass, helped to keep Clair Obscur from being swallowed by Oblivion Remastered.
“By the time that we rolled around, we had momentum of our own and we felt pretty confident that we could stand beside it,” he said.
“We knew we would have a lot of interest around the game. We were confident in that. And it went as well as it possibly could have done in our eyes. And, actually, proximity to Oblivion didn’t seem to harm us at all. In many ways, I think it just drew attention to quality RPGs that week and everybody was thinking and talking about the genre.”
The fact that everyone does seem to be talking about Clair Obscur, and specifically about how good it is, could be part of what’s pushing Kepler and Sandfall to invest in post-launch content, as one the game’s lead writers recently suggested there’s a good chance for DLC due to the game’s glowing reception.
