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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only an impressive GOTY candidate, but also a huge commercial success. Studio Sandfall Interactive and publisher their publishing partner announced that this title exceeded 5 million units in sales, this is in spite of it being a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

Its success came as quite a shock to the developers. “I was strongly believing that we'd create a solid title that would meet some average market performance,” a senior team member commented.

A technical director noted that Clair Obscur’s critical score, which currently sits at 93, was the most surprising moment to the team versus “our initial expectations and the final result turned out to be. Once it was published everybody in the studio was screaming and jumping. It felt absolutely wild.”

The positive reception resulted in Sandfall developing a free update for the game with a new environment, adversaries, along with challenging bosses, reportedly will release within the “upcoming month[s]”.

That said, while the game is growing, fans shouldn't anticipate the team will expand. Our team includes an excellent group under clear creative leadership who has a great vision for the project plus upcoming innovations. We intend to preserve the human scale that worked for this game then develop one big game after another,” the executive noted.

The studio's scale sparked a storm of discussion following launch. Certain industry figures, such as the famed director, considered the development group as the model for a studio. While Sandfall was and is relatively lean compared to its AAA counterparts, checking Expedition 33’s credits indicates dozens of people were involved; the French studio hired a team in Korea to work on gameplay animations, to illustrate.

“We will hire a bit more definitely if we have a future production surge in the coming years,” the producer commented. “Yet I picture essentially a craft studio comprising a handful exceptionally gifted creators capable of producing a work of art together.” He noted that Sandfall’s vision as a company “aims to keep the strengths that made this achievement possible originally.”

Despite being not the right time to disclose concrete plans regarding upcoming titles — and trust me, efforts were made — the team does know their essential identity. “Turn-based gameplay, I think it's in the DNA of what we built,” a developer said. “It's a bit too early to be able to tell our next interests, but it's important also to remain faithful to the DNA of studio through compelling worlds plus innovative play that inspires the team.”

The lead programmer added how this game began with the visionary “work[ing] on his dream game. It is hoped that philosophy will be repeated with upcoming games.”