A Look At Clair Obscur's Quest For A Perfect Awards Season

This Thursday, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is favored to win another Game of the Year award at the DICE Awards in Las Vegas. While the game's dominance in 2025 might seem settled, the annual awards cycle is only partially complete. Three more significant industry-voted awards remain: DICE, the Game Developers Choice Awards in March, and the BAFTA Game Awards in April. The central question now is whether Clair Obscur can win Game of the Year at all five of the most prestigious ceremonies, a collection known as the Big Five. This achievement would require a consensus across the entire industry, from fans to developers.

Achieving a Big Five sweep is a monumental task. I see it has only been accomplished once in the history of these awards. The voting bodies for each ceremony are distinct, and each has its own particular tendencies. A game must appeal to industry peers, critics, media, and the general public to win all five. While Clair Obscur is not facing a heavyweight rival, success is not a foregone conclusion. The history of these awards shows how even overwhelming favorites can fall short. The challenge is navigating the different preferences and tastes of each group, from the fan-voted Golden Joysticks to the peer-voted DICE awards. The journey to a clean sweep is fraught with potential upsets.

The Big Five awards ceremonies each represent a different segment of the gaming world:

• The Golden Joystick Awards
• The Game Awards
• The DICEAwards
• The Game Developers Choice Awards
• The BAFTA Games Awards

Since the Game Awards era began in 2014, only one game has managed to win the Game of the Year title from all five bodies: Baldur's Gate 3 in 2023. Expanding the timeline back to 2003, when the Spike Video Game Awards and the first BAFTA game ceremony were held, the result remains the same. A sweep is exceptionally rare. Often, the release schedule pits two major titles against each other, forcing a split decision among the voting groups. This happened with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Half-Life 2 in 2004, Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead Redemption in 2010, and The Last of Us Part 2 and Hades in 2020. Rockstar Games has frequently found its major releases in these head-to-head battles, including in 2018 when God of War largely overshadowed Red Dead Redemption 2.

Even when a single game appears to have a clear path, one award can disrupt a perfect run. BAFTA, in particular, has a reputation for making unexpected choices late in the season. Its juries often favor unique, left-field titles. In 2017, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s sweep was prevented when BAFTA selected the low-budget indie drama What Remains of Edith Finch?. It happened again in 2022 when Elden Ring’s streak was broken by the gloriously braindead Vampire Survivors. The Golden Joysticks, as the only public-voted award, can also produce surprising results. In 2018, critics and industry awards went to God of War, but the public chose Fortnite, a game that evolved into a global cultural and financial phenomenon.

Read also, after a massive success last year, Expedition 33 became the most GOTY-awarded game — only two weeks ago, it was in the second position, just behind ELDEN RING. However, we now have a new undisputed winner.

Clair Obscur has already secured the Ultimate Game of the Year award from the Golden Joysticks and the top prize at The Game Awards. I do believe it is poised to win at both DICE and the GDC Awards as well. The final and most unpredictable challenge remains the BAFTA Games Awards. Given the jury’s history, a "comedy combo-breaker" is a real possibility, with a game like Blue Prince seen as a likely candidate for an upset. If Sandfall Interactive’s game does miss out on the final prize, it will not be a sign of failure. It would simply mean Clair Obscur joins a list of other excellent and highly decorated games that fell just short of a perfect, and nearly impossible, sweep.