Valor Mortis’ director wants more hits on Expedition 33’s scale

On 11 September 2026 at Gamescom, Valor Mortis director Radek Ratusznik told GamesIndustry.biz that one success like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has not been enough for publishers. They still treat the AA segment as risky.

In his view the industry needs several more stories of that kind, and not only at Expedition 33’s exact size. He sees many studios that can make a strong game without a budget in the hundreds of millions. The block is the expectation across the table: a small team, a near-perfect result and a short schedule. Even a mid-size game needs time to build and test. Finishing one in a year without serious trouble is, to him, unrealistic.

Valor Mortis itself sits in that band: a soulslike about zombies in 19th-century France, with a grim tone and large fights. Expedition 33 already showed that a mid-range budget can become a major hit. Ratusznik is waiting for more examples before publishers stop reading AA as a financial risk only.