Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 eventually became a big hit, but before launch, the developers didn't expect the project to be received so well.
In a conversation with Edge, game director Guillaume Broche said that this success was completely unexpected for almost everyone on the team:
What surprised us the most was how much the narrative [storytelling], cinematics, and story resonated with people. This is the hardest thing to quantify because it's always very personal. So the fact that it worked so well almost instantly made us think, "Okay, this is a hundred times better than we expected."
Currently, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has already collected more than 400 "Game of the Year" awards. It lost several because some award organizers had complaints against the authors for using AI in development.