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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a strong GOTY candidate, but also an enormous sales triumph. Studio the development team and publisher their publishing partner disclosed that the game surpassed 5 million units in sales, and that’s despite its status as a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

Its success was a surprise to Sandfall. I firmly believed that we'd create a solid title that would meet some average commercial success,” a key executive stated.

Another leading developer noted the game's Metacritic rating, which currently sits at 93, came as perhaps the most surprising moment to the studio compared to “our initial expectations and the final result turned out to be. Because when it dropped all staff members celebrated excitedly. The energy was electric.”

That success resulted in the studio creating new free content for the title featuring fresh areas, enemies, along with challenging bosses, reportedly is coming within the “upcoming month[s]”.

That said, while the game is growing, fans shouldn't anticipate they'll hire extensively. We've built a great team guided by a visionary director with a clear direction for this game plus upcoming innovations. Our goal is to maintain the human scale that made this possible and do maybe large projects one by one,” they said.

Their team size sparked plenty of debate upon the title's release. Certain industry figures, including renowned designers, considered this studio as a perfect example for game development. Despite being truly compact compared to its AAA counterparts, one glance at Expedition 33’s credits shows that numerous contributors participated; the French studio hired a team in Korea handling movement and effects, as an instance.

“Some hiring will occur slightly more certainly should there be an increase in development down the line,” the producer said. “But I would see essentially a craft studio with a small number of highly skilled individuals that can make a work of art together.” It was stated that their core belief as a company “aims to keep the key advantages that enabled this success in the first place.”

Despite being premature for the studio to reveal exact details about future projects — and trust me, I tried to get them to — they are certain what’s at its core. “The turn-based aspect, is integral to our identity of this project,” the lead programmer remarked. “The timing isn't right to announce future passions, but it's important also to adhere to the DNA of studio with [a] strong narrative universe and engaging mechanics that inspires the team.”

They added that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 began with their director “work[ing] on his dream game. It is hoped that's something will be repeated as well for future productions.”