Two of this year’s standout games, Dispatch and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, came from teams that walked away from one of the biggest studios in the industry: Ubisoft.
It’s already painting a clear picture of missed opportunities and talent drain for the French gaming publisher. But if it weren’t for their decisions, we wouldn’t be enjoying Robert Robertson’s life in the Z-Team or crying our hearts out to the Gommage in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Sandfall Interactive’s Guillaume Broche and Tom Guillermin were former Ubisoft devs. It wasn't until 2019, when they had a fateful encounter with each other, that they pitched a turn-based RPG about a buff/debuff system. After gathering a talented team from Reddit threads to Bandcamp scouting, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was born.
Now, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is already sweeping every nomination in this year’s The Game Awards, and it’s also vying for the top spot for 2025’s Game of the Year.
Dispatch, the 8-part episodic game from AdHoc Studios, is also a product of former talent from the Assassin’s Creed studio. Three of its developers, Nick Herman, Dennis Lenart, and Pierre Shorette, all came from Ubisoft. However, before they were part of the French gaming giant, they were primarily associated with the first iteration of Telltale Games, which was responsible for crafting pioneering episodic titles such as The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us.
Following Telltale Games’ unfortunate shutdown in 2018, the team found itself in Ubisoft’s offices until they eventually established AdHoc. After a few scrapped ideas, Dispatch became real, and it’s now making the company’s first ‘bull case.'
Like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Dispatch is nominated for Best Debut Indie Game for The Game Awards, with other contenders being Dogubomb’s Blue Prince.
In the unpredictable ebbs and flows of game development, there’s always going to be a group of talented individuals who realize that severe corporate oversight limits their creative process. The best move is to step away from these limitations and make your own studio.
It doesn’t always work the way they intended. Some budding game companies fell short before their games made it to the shelves, but studios like AdHoc and Sandfall managed to capture lightning in a bottle.
Dispatch and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 proved that veering away from agonizing paperwork and bureaucratic structures paves the way for a talented team to focus on their great ideas efficiently. No more asking from the higher-ups what to do next, as they have a focused vision of ‘just creating their dream game.’
And now, we’re seeing these indie games compete against AAA giants in the unpredictable gaming market.
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