According to Kotaku, Sandfall Interactive’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has been crowned the biggest third-party game launch on Xbox Game Pass in 2025, based on unique users in its first 30 days. Creative director Guillaume Broche credits the service, noting Xbox helped market the game from its Summer 2024 announcement through a Developer_Direct video in January. He believes Game Pass allowed many players to try the turn-based RPG who otherwise might have been hesitant, lowering the barrier to entry. This launch success comes as Microsoft announced the service generated $5 billion in revenue, though it hasn’t released new subscriber numbers in over a year. It also happened before the recent price hike, when the Ultimate tier cost $20 per month instead of the current $30.
Game Pass: The Great Democratizer?
Broche’s comments highlight the classic, and arguably best, version of the Game Pass value proposition. Here’s the thing: turn-based RPGs can be a hard sell. They’re a beloved genre, but they demand a specific kind of patience and tactical thinking that doesn’t click with everyone. Paying $70 to find out you don’t like the combat loop is a big ask.
Game Pass, in theory, removes that risk. You can just download it. You can wander around Lumière for an hour, get into a few fights, and see if the vibe works. If it doesn’t, no big loss. If it does, you’ve discovered a new favorite. That’s exactly what Broche says happened. It’s a perfect case study of the service acting as a discovery platform, not just a rental library. It turns “maybe” players into fans, and for a new IP from a debut studio, that’s pure gold.
A Peak Or A Template?
But this story has a big, glaring asterisk. Clair Obscur launched in April, when Game Pass Ultimate was $20. It’s now $30. That’s a 50% price increase. The calculus for a player changes. At $20, you’re more likely to keep the subscription rolling as a background utility, making spontaneous tries like this easy. At $30, every dollar counts harder. You might be more selective, treating it more like a traditional purchase decision for each game you play.
So, is Clair Obscur the exception that proves the rule? A final, glorious success from the “old” Game Pass era? Microsoft says the service is profitable, but the silence on subscriber counts is deafening. They’re leaning on revenue, which can go up even if growth slows, thanks to those price hikes. For indie developers, the question is whether the smaller deals and more crowded service of today can still deliver this kind of breakout moment. Can a game like this cut through the noise when everyone is more careful about their $30 monthly spend?
The Unsustainable Paradox
There’s a fundamental tension here. For Game Pass to be valuable to players, it needs huge, buzzy hits like Clair Obscur. For it to be sustainable for Microsoft, it can’t pay developers so much that it negates the subscription revenue. And for it to work for developers, the upfront payment plus the player conversion has to outweigh potential lost sales.
Clair Obscur seems to have nailed that trifecta. But it required a perfect storm: a critically adored game, a genre that benefits massively from low-risk trial, and a subscription price that encouraged experimentation. I think the real test is whether we see another story like this in 2026. Or will developers start looking at the $30 price tag and the tougher deals and decide the math doesn’t work anymore? Microsoft landed a big win here. The trick is proving it wasn’t the last one.
