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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a top Game of the Year candidate, but also a massive financial hit. Developer Sandfall Interactive and publisher their publishing partner announced that the game exceeded 5 million units sold, this is despite it being a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

Its success came as a surprise for the team. I was convinced that we would have a good game garnering reasonable market performance,” the COO and producer commented.

Another leading developer pointed out the game's Metacritic rating, rated 93 by critics, was the most surprising moment to the team compared to what we anticipated and the actual outcome turned out to be. Once it was published everybody in the studio was screaming and jumping. The energy was electric.”

The positive reception prompted the studio creating a free update for players including novel settings, foes, plus epic encounters, as announced will release sometime soon.

However, as the title expands, it's unlikely the team will expand. We've built an excellent group with a strong creative director with a clear direction for the project and future concepts. We intend to preserve the small-team dynamic that led to our success then develop major titles sequentially,” the executive noted.

The size of Sandfall drummed up significant conversation following launch. Some developers, such as the famed director, viewed this studio as the model for a studio. Although the team is and was indeed a small team versus large developers, one glance at Expedition 33’s credits reveals numerous contributors worked on it; the French studio contracted a Korean team handling movement and effects, as an instance.

“We plan to recruit a little more for sure when facing a future production surge in the coming years,” the executive stated. “Yet I picture rather a creative atelier comprising a handful highly skilled individuals capable of producing collective masterpieces.” They emphasized that their core belief as developers “aims to keep the strengths that led to this accomplishment originally.”

Despite being not the right time to say specifically what’s next — and trust me, efforts were made — they are certain what’s at its core. “The turn-based aspect, is integral to our identity of what we built,” the lead programmer remarked. “The timing isn't right to be able to tell future passions, yet we must to remain faithful to our creative core with [a] strong narrative universe plus innovative play that excites us.”

They noted how this game started with the creative director pursuing his ideal project. And hopefully that philosophy we will be able to do with upcoming games.”