Most gamers know what a video game costs to purchase, but few know how much one costs to make. Take Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the debut RPG from Sandfall Interactive that has already racked up a number of game of the year accolades, including from us! While the game's gorgeous visuals, stunning performances, and fluid gameplay are AAA quality, the game had only a fraction of the budget afforded to AAA studios.
In a recent interview with The New York Times, Sandfall Interactive revealed the final budget for Clair Obscur came in at "less than $10 million." For context, 2023's Final Fantasy 16, a recent entry in the series that served as major inspiration for Clair Obscur, cost roughly $58 million according to a recent investor presentation. Yet, even that is a small number in the larger AAA space, where budgets for some of the biggest franchises in the world balloon up to $300 or even $700 million – in the cases of Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, respectively. So what's Sandfall's secret? Being resourceful.
