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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just an impressive Game of the Year contender, it’s also an enormous financial hit. Studio the development team along with publisher Kepler Interactive revealed that the game topped five million copies sold, this is despite it being a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.

This achievement came as an unexpected turn for the team. “I was strongly believing that we would have an enjoyable experience that would meet reasonable commercial success,” a senior team member stated.

Another leading developer pointed out the game's critical score, now standing at 93, came as “maybe the biggest shock for everyone compared to what we anticipated and the final result of the field was. Once it was published all staff members was screaming and jumping. It felt absolutely wild.”

This triumph resulted in Sandfall developing a complimentary expansion for the title featuring fresh areas, adversaries, plus epic encounters, which they said will release sometime soon.

That said, while the game is growing, don’t expect the studio to grow. We've built a talented crew with a strong creative director who has a great vision for this game and future concepts. We'd like to keep the small-team dynamic that made this possible and do maybe major titles sequentially,” they noted.

Their team size generated significant conversation upon the title's release. Certain industry figures, such as the famed director, viewed the development group as the “ideal” for creative teams. Despite being truly compact next to major studios, one glance at the title's staff list shows that numerous contributors worked on it; Sandfall hired a team in Korea to work on gameplay animations, for example.

“We plan to recruit slightly more certainly should there be next an upcoming production peak down the line,” the producer commented. “However, I envision more of a workshop comprising a handful really talented people that create collective masterpieces.” They emphasized that the studio's philosophy as a studio “aims to keep the successful elements that made this achievement possible from the start.”

While it may be premature for the studio to reveal exact details about future projects — believe me, efforts were made — the team does know what’s at its core. “Strategic combat, I think it's in the DNA of what we built,” the lead programmer said. “The timing isn't right to be able to tell what will interest us, however, it's crucial to remain faithful to our studio's essence through compelling worlds and the interesting gameplay that excites us.”

The lead programmer noted how this game started with their director “work[ing] on his dream game. And hopefully that philosophy we will be able to do with upcoming games.”