Obscurvion hits gamers as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 publisher pokes fun at its unfortunate collision with Oblivion remaster’s shadow drop: ‘omg it’s like Barbenheimer’

This week’s been a pretty big deal for PC gamers and RPG enjoyers: Bethesda shadow-dropped Oblivion Remastered, providing a shockingly good facelift for the 19-year-old game while meticulously preserving all its endearing jank.

The timing is, however, not exactly great for games that are looking to launch this week. One such game being Sandfall Interactive’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Oblivion’s launch came right before Clair Obscur’s mostly glowing reviews—though our own reviewer wasn’t quite as keen—and mere days before its launch on April 24.

It’s easy to get a bit huffy about the whole thing. Release windows are tricky little things, and presumably tons of thought goes into selecting the perfect moment to unleash your game upon the masses.

We’ve seen developers become less and less shy over the years about publicly moving their game launches to avoid: Larian pulled Baldur’s Gate 3 an entire month forward to get out of Starfield’s firing line—a decision which is very funny in hindsight—which then dominoed into Stray Gods: A Roleplaying Musical delaying its game as a result.

Clair Obscur publisher Kepler Interactive, however, has decided to take the whole thing in its stride. As spotted by GamesRadar, it tweeted a fun mish-mash image of its cast of characters in front of an Oblivion gate along with the caption “omg it’s like barbenheimer,” referencing that time in 2023 when both the Barbie and Oppenheimer movie were in theatres and everyone enjoyed the tonal whiplash for a few months.

Bethesda even went ahead and responded, replying with a picture of several Adoring Fans surrounding a TV with Clair Obscur on it, writing: “We can’t wait to play!” Not one to be outdone, Kepler rounded off the conversation with a picture of a table full of sweet rolls and, of course, some French baguettes.

I know it’s just brands being brands at this point—we recently saw a similar interaction between Inzoi and The Sims—but I still can’t help but enjoy little interactions like this. No doubt it’s helping Clair Obscur reclaim a little bit of the spotlight it’ll have lost to Oblivion. Above all, this week feels like a big win for RPG nerds like myself. What can I say? We’re eating pretty good right now, folks.