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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a strong GOTY candidate, but also an enormous sales triumph. Developer Sandfall Interactive and publisher their publishing partner disclosed that the game topped 5 million units in sales, this is in spite of its status as a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.

Its success came as a surprise to the developers. I was convinced that we would have a solid title garnering some average market performance,” a senior team member commented.

Another leading developer noted the game's critical score, now standing at 93, came as the most surprising moment to the studio compared to “our initial expectations and the actual outcome of the field was. When the score released everybody in the studio were cheering loudly. It was really frantic.”

That success prompted Sandfall developing a free update for players featuring fresh areas, adversaries, along with challenging bosses, as announced would be out sometime soon.

Nevertheless, despite the game's evolution, don’t expect they'll hire extensively. “We have an excellent group under clear creative leadership who has a great vision for the project and also for new ideas. Our goal is to maintain the small-team dynamic that worked for this game then develop large projects one by one,” the producer added.

Their team size generated significant conversation upon the title's release. Some developers, including renowned designers, viewed the development group as a perfect example for a studio. Despite being indeed a small team compared to its AAA counterparts, checking Expedition 33’s credits shows that many individuals worked on it; the French studio hired a team in Korea handling movement and effects, for example.

“We plan to recruit a bit more certainly should there be next an upcoming production peak down the line,” they commented. “But I would see more of a workshop of a few really talented people that can make artistic collaborations.” It was stated that their core belief as a company “focuses on preserving the strengths that led to this accomplishment originally.”

Despite being too early for Sandfall to reveal exact details what’s next — and trust me, I attempted to learn more — the developers understand their essential identity. “The turn-based aspect, forms the foundation of this project,” a developer said. “It's a bit too early to be able to tell future passions, however, it's crucial to adhere to our studio's essence through compelling worlds plus innovative play that excites us.”

The developer mentioned how this game started with the visionary “work[ing] on his dream game. And hopefully that's something we will be able to do with upcoming games.”