Indie Game Awards Disqualifies Clair Obscur Over GenAI Use

Six One Indie has disqualified Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 from the Indie Game Awards 2025 after confirming generative AI use. Here’s what changed, and who got the trophies instead.

Indie Game Awards strip Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 over AI

The Indie Game Awards crowned Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as Game of the Year and Debut Game at the 2025 ceremony on 18 December 2025. Two days later, that win got reversed.

According to Insider Gaming, the show's organisers (Six One Indie) announced on Saturdaty, 20 December 2025, that the game is being stripped of its awards due to generative AI usage.

The Indie Game Awards 2025 happened on 18 December 2025, but the result changed after the fact
Organisers Six One Indie say Clair Obscur is disqualified due to GenAI usage
They say Sandfall Interactive had agreed no gen AI was used when the game was submitted

What happened (and why people are arguing about it)

The Indie Game Awards crowned Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as Game of the Year and Debut Game at the 2025 ceremony on 18 December 2025. Two days later, that win got reversed.

According to Insider Gaming, the show’s organisers (Six One Indie) announced on Saturday, 20 December 2025, that the game is being stripped of its awards due to generative AI usage.

And yes, this is the kind of thing that starts fights in comment sections.

Why the game was disqualified

Six One Indie says the Indie Game Awards have a “hard stance” against gen AI use during nominations and the ceremony. They also say Sandfall Interactive’s representatives agreed that no gen AI was used when the game was submitted.

Later, Six One Indie says Sandfall Interactive confirmed gen AI use on the day the Indie Game Awards 2025 premiere went live, which triggered the disqualification.

What’s not clear (from the announcement as reported) is what gen AI was used for, or how much of the game it touched. The organisers’ message is about the rule and the submission agreement, not the exact asset or tool.

Quick points

Organisers say they found out after voting was done.
They say the show was already recorded by the time the issue surfaced.
The decision is framed as enforcing the awards’ gen AI policy.

If you want the broader “AI in games” context we’ve been tracking, here are a couple of relevant reads on Tbreak:

What happens to the trophies now

Once Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was removed, the awards shifted to the runner-ups.

Insider Gaming reports the updated results as:

Game of the Year: Blue Prince
Debut Game: Sorry We’re Closed

This part matters because it’s not just a “statement” moment — it changes who gets the credit (and the marketing boost) from the ceremony.

Quick points

The organisers say they’re a small team, and thanked the community for patience and feedback.
They also teased they’re already looking ahead to the 2026 ceremony.

The messy bit: where’s the “AI line” for awards?

The biggest practical takeaway here isn’t “one game got disqualified”. It’s that awards shows are trying to set rules for a toolset that’s sliding into everything.

Six One Indie’s position (as reported) is simple: gen AI use is a disqualifier, and the submission included an agreement that it wasn’t used.

But without details on what gen AI was used for, you can expect the same argument to repeat everywhere:

some people will treat any AI use as disqualifying, full stop
others will ask if it was AI in final assets, or AI used during development

That debate isn’t going away. And if you’ve been following Clair Obscur’s awards run this year, you’ll know it’s already been in the spotlight a lot. For more on that side of the story, see our earlier coverage: