Gaming auteur Hideo Kojima heaped praise on 2025 smash hit Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, calling the game “ideal” for how efficiently it was made with such a small team behind it.
Expedition 33, the debut project from French studio Sanfall Interactive, launched in April of this year not to a whisper, but to thunderous applause. Both critically and commercially, it became one of the most high-profile releases of the year, with many considering it a shoo-in for Game of the Year.
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Of course, we’ve seen countless praise the game for its innovative turn-based combat and its grim yet utterly engrossing narrative. But Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima has put the title on a pedestal for a different reason.
When speaking at a group interview Dexerto attended in Sydney, Australia ahead of the release of Death Stranding 2, Kojima mentioned how his own studio in Japan has ballooned in size over the years. With the demands of the industry only rising, it requires more hands to get the job done. At least, that’s been the theory until games like Expedition 33 came along.
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Hideo Kojima praises Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 for its team size
“When I first started, it was like a team of six,” Kojima said with a laugh. “You could do everything yourself. Now, it’s expanded. You can’t really control each employee, so you delegate. But sometimes, the idea doesn’t really work out because it’s a bigger team.”
Disney+Kojima went on to claim many modern action games “should be done in smaller teams.”
Highlighting the recent blockbuster of Expedition 33 as a standout success, Kojima labelled it as his “ideal” game development experience. “They only have like 33 team members and a dog. That’s my ideal when I create something with a team.
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“Creation has now become much bigger. It’s kind of a war between how efficient you could [be] with the small team, but you have to make it so grand.”
Continuing his explanation, Kojima even argued that much of modern game development is akin to “factory” work. “Big companies, like 600, 1,000 people, they’re full of totally different teams,” he stressed. “Everyone’s concentrating on their work and then combining together.”
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Kojima couldn’t let George Miller down
Amusingly, when Kojima last met with Mad Max creator George Miller prior to their 2025 conversation at the Sydney Film Festival, they spoke on this very subject.
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“I’m trying to keep Kojima Productions under 150 people,” he told his ‘God’ back in the studio’s early days.
“It’s the same as the nomads,” Miller told Kojima. “They can’t go over 150, that’s the biggest group.”
DexertoKojima gifted the Mad Max creator with a signed Death Stranding 2 poster.
When the pair met up again, Miller recalled the conversation and asked if Kojima had kept true to his desire. “You still have your team under 150?” he questioned.
“During the pandemic… It was over 200 people,” Kojima told us, but he simply “couldn’t tell that to George.”
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