French President Emmanuel Macron offers a second public shout-out to Clair Obscur after its Sport Awards sweep: ‘A supply of nice satisfaction for Montpellier and for France’

The individuals (and Geoff Keighley) have spoken: Clair Obscur is a licensed zinger, and now the French head of state himself is cheering on Sandfall Interactive. The Closing Fantasy-inspired RPG simply guzzled an astonishing 9 awards at The Sport Awards, together with Sport of the Yr, triggering a response from French President Emmanuel Macron himself and signaling that the nation is nearing a Civilization-style cultural victory.

Macron took to Instagram to precise his admiration for Sandfall Interactive, saying (as Google Translate tells me): “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has simply been named Sport of the Yr in Los Angeles. A historic first for a French title! A supply of nice satisfaction for Montpellier and for France. Congratulations to the groups at Sandfall Interactive. For future generations and people to return!”

It is the second time Macron has spoken in regards to the sport’s success. He referred to as Expedition 33 “a shining instance of French audacity and creativity” within the weeks after its launch earlier this 12 months. Whereas I’ve my doubts that Macron is in his workplace toying with completely different Pictos mixtures and mastering his parry timings, it is vital that the sport has gotten his consideration in any respect: it demonstrates that videogames are works with actual cultural heft, the kind that leaders on the worldwide stage see match to take critically.

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And Macron actually has a historical past of taking video games “critically.” In 2023, he linked videogames to violent protests and acts of vandalism by rioters, saying that “it typically seems like a few of them are experiencing, on the streets, the videogames which have intoxicated them.” I suppose it simply took the correct RPG to win him over.

Regardless, it is a good feather in Sandfall’s cap—the studio has quickly turn out to be one of the distinguished within the RPG house with only a single sport out, and kudos like these solely lend extra status.