Expedition 33 creators bet on game's review scores — and everyone lost

Before Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 earned widespread praise, the small team at Sandfall Interactive placed personal bets on its final Metacritic score. Developers promised dares — tattoos, dyed hair and other stunts — depending on whether the game outperformed their guesses, Jennifer Svedberg-Yen says.

The wagers grew unusual. One developer pledged to try stand-up comedy; another said they would eat an entire chicken while a colleague beatboxed. Not a single person on the team guessed the Metacritic score correctly, Svedberg-Yen adds. She did not share specific predictions, but Expedition 33 currently sits on a 92 overall score, making the margin for error large.

Most games are lucky to crack a score somewhere in the 80s, and the number of titles that reach at least a 90 keeps getting smaller. Data shows that, in recent years, only a handful of games achieve a Metacritic score of 90 or above, and platforms like Steam receive thousands of releases every month — factors that made a 92 score a statistical anomaly.

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