The Indie Game Awards have disqualified Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the Game of the Year winner, for using AI. The decision was made due to a representative of Sandfall Interactive falsely claiming no AI was used in the game's development. The Indie Game Awards have a strict policy against the use of generative AI throughout the nomination process and during the ceremony. The game's assets were later confirmed to include AI-generated art, which violated the regulations. As a result, the IGAs Nomination Committee retracted the Debut Game and Game of the Year awards, and reassigned them to the next highest-ranked games in each category. This means the Debut Game award will now go to Sorry We're Closed, and Blue Prince will secure the Game of the Year title. The success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which has sold over 5 million copies worldwide, has been widely recognized, including a public acknowledgment by French President Emmanuel Macron. The game's AI controversy, however, has cast a shadow over its achievements.
