Guillaume Broche, who is the game director of Expedition 33, has made an astonishing statement that the great success of the game has completely and unexpectedly astonished the creators. Broche, in a tweet that sparked much debate, pointed out that eventually, the game’s storyline and the graphics have become the most powerful players’ attachment factors to the game. This honest confession reveals the unpredictability of the gaming industry and how an uninformed project can still attract the public and even surpass their expectations in ways that the developers had not imagined.
Guillaume Broche is the head honcho of the Expedition 33 game, and he has made the above claim that the development team was not at all the ones who thought the game would be so successful. By no means did they think so. Broche took to Twitter and stated that it was “completely unexpected by pretty much everybody” in the studio. He then continued to say that people really got attached to the story and singled it out as the reason that impressed them the most. The cinematics, the narrative, the whole thing—that’s how he put it—hit them hardest. It’s like… whoa, right? You make this wonderful thing, you pour your love into it, but you never really know. Again, wham, it takes the entire world by storm.
And the replies to this tweet are, let me tell you, incredible. A whole mood. Unfiltered and chaotic, but still very much the gamers’ way, they cover a whole range of the gamers’ opinions. So, let’s take a closer look at this.
First of all, there’s the love. That is a given. Gamers are putting the game on a pedestal, saying that the win was “well deserved” and that the game “respects my TIME and INTELLIGENCE.” A user called FAR Labs has summed up the moment beautifully with “Narrative hitting souls like that? Pure craft.” That’s the good part. Another user going by the name like David_60fps has just simply said “Expedition 33 was built with passion.” And this seems to be the main feeling of many who loved the game, it was almost as if it was made, not just produced.
Because alongside every bit of praise, there is… well, the internet. For example, some replies are quite perplexingly anti-French?? Like, “Love the game, hate the french,” is the statement of wizardoflizards who then makes a comparison of himself as a confused farmer surrounded by a lot of shovels in a shed. “Only good thing outta france” is the comment of Jay Edwards. Ouch, mate. Really, ouch! And then there is ArturMagomedeov who thinks that the game has won over gamers simply by being not “gay shit for once.” Ok, let’s move on.
Conspiracy theories are also present here so no need to panic. John Black Backup is implying that “French billionaires must be paying thegameaward for the trophy.” Meanwhile, vortexdeconquer calls the game’s many Game of the Year wins a “robbery,” and posts a meme of a guy looking shocked. X CREED agrees and yells, “That’s why kingdom come 2 was ROBBED.” The debate goes on as always.
Then the more critical opinions start to come up. SirLynx makes a great remark when he says that the game was able to jump the line because “AAA industries were having quality issues with their games so the bar was pretty low.” Ouch! Truth bomb! FireWing repeats an idea that many definitely agree with about game development nowadays being restrictive and says that “When you make a game without restrictions and things you are forced to put in the game by shareholders you get a pretty good game.” Beat Rev is also saying that it is “something that Ubi would have never greenlit.” It is the classic indie versus big studio narrative playing out in real-time.
And of course, there are always some who are not going to be happy with it. ffpirate420 says “I have 0 interest in playing this game just because how much its talked about.” Which is a fair point. Overhyping is a reality. JizaLoop critiques the game as “dogshit made with Ai and UE assets flip,” claiming even the studio knew it was “slop.” devouring_gods dismisses it as “trash from France 33” and “recycled.” JuiceDevil asks if a game that got a film deal before its release can really have its success claimed as surprising. This is a valid question!
It is a whole jumble of opinions, and that is what makes it so interesting. Shade dubs it a “Black Swan event in the video game industry,” probably the most accurate designation of all. A huge outlier that no one foresaw, much like the surprise success of many indie games on platforms like PlayStation and Xbox.
