“It Is Hard for Me to Accept That Expedition 33 Is a Better Game Than Elden Ring”, Says Industry Veteran
The debate around Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has entered a new phase this week, as coverage of the game’s awards momentum continues to ripple across the industry conversation. The catalyst is simple: Expedition 33 is now being widely cited as having surpassed the total number of Game of the Year awards attributed to FromSoftware’s Elden Ring, a milestone that is fueling both celebration and pushback across developer and player circles.
One of the most visible reactions comes from industry veteran Rich Vogel, who weighed in via a LinkedIn post. Vogel frames Expedition 33 as a strong game that deserves praise, but he struggles with the idea that it should be considered better than Elden Ring. His perspective is rooted in player agency and systemic design. He highlights the satisfaction curve of Elden Ring’s exploration loop and how its open world structure empowers experimentation rather than funneling players through overly prescribed routes. In short, his message lands as a respectful endorsement of Expedition 33 while still defending Elden Ring as a benchmark for freedom driven game design.
The conversation gets more nuanced when other veterans add framing around replayability. One common thread is that Elden Ring is built for repeat engagement through its build diversity, world discovery cadence, and emergent challenge arcs, while Expedition 33 leans harder into the kind of authored emotional journey that can hit with exceptional impact on a first run. That difference matters because awards are often influenced not just by mechanics, but by resonance, pacing, and how strongly a game sticks its landing in the cultural moment it launches into.
It is also important to keep the scoreboard in perspective. Expedition 33 reportedly sits at 436 awards versus 435 for Elden Ring, but that delta does not translate into an objective hierarchy. Award totals are shaped by the size and composition of voting bodies, the number of outlets participating in a given year, and the competitive field. Elden Ring’s year also included heavyweight contenders that inevitably split votes, which can compress totals even for historically dominant releases.
What we are really watching is a premium example of how the industry is evolving its definition of greatness. Elden Ring represents scale, systemic depth, and long tail mastery. Expedition 33 represents high impact storytelling, style cohesion, and a tightly executed RPG identity that clearly connected with critics and many players. Two different value propositions, two different success models, and now one very loud question sitting at the center of gamer discourse.
If you had to pick only 1 as your personal Game of the Year style winner, do you value replayability and freedom like Elden Ring, or emotional payoff and authored RPG craft like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33?
