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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a top GOTY contender, it’s also a huge sales triumph. Studio the development team and publisher their publishing partner revealed that the game exceeded five million copies sold, and that’s despite it being a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

This achievement was a surprise to Sandfall. I was convinced that we'd create a good game achieving moderate commercial success,” a senior team member explained.

Another leading developer remarked that Clair Obscur’s review aggregate, which currently sits at 93, came as perhaps “maybe the biggest shock to the team relative to “our initial expectations and the final result turned out to be. Once it was published all staff members celebrated excitedly. It felt absolutely wild.”

That success has led to work on new free content for players with a new environment, foes, along with challenging bosses, which they said is coming sometime soon.

That said, as the title expands, fans shouldn't anticipate the studio to grow. Our team includes a great team guided by a visionary director who has a great vision for the project and also for new ideas. We'd like to keep the small-team dynamic that led to our success and perhaps create major titles sequentially,” they added.

Their team size sparked a storm of discussion upon the title's release. Some developers, such as the famed director, considered the development group as the model for creative teams. While Sandfall was and is indeed a small team next to major studios, one glance at the title's staff list shows that numerous contributors participated; Sandfall contracted a Korean team for animation work, to illustrate.

“Some hiring will occur a little more for sure if we have an increase in development in the coming years,” the producer commented. “Yet I picture essentially a craft studio of a few highly skilled individuals that create artistic collaborations.” It was stated that Sandfall’s vision as a company “focuses on preserving the key advantages that enabled this success in the first place.”

While it may be too early for Sandfall to disclose concrete plans about future projects — and trust me, I tried to get them to — the developers understand their fundamental principles. “The turn-based aspect, forms the foundation of what we built,” they said. “It's still premature to be able to tell future passions, but it's important also to adhere to the DNA of studio featuring rich storytelling and engaging mechanics that drives our passion.”

They noted that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 originated from the creative director pursuing his ideal project. And hopefully this approach we can continue in coming projects.”