It feels as if there have been a few years now where the usual AAA experience has been critiqued by gamers, to a point where now we're seeing games that might not sound like they'd succeed on paper sell millions of copies.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is one such game, and in an interview with Pirate Software, the game's director Guillaume Broche spoke about how game developers should approach future projects.
"I consider myself really, really, really lucky in how all the stars aligned," Broche said, prefacing his view that developers "don't have to make a game that you think people will like, you have to make a game that you will like."
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"In terms of creative decisions, if I would not like it in the game, it doesn't go in the game." Broche believes that a game with such a strong sense of creation can have a better chance of deeply touching players, and if it does, then it will not fail.
Broche definitely has a point, but it's nice that he acknowledges Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's luck in all of this. Some games can have a strong creative vision, and be made in the way he describes, but can still not perform as well as publishers would like.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is available now on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.