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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only an impressive Game of the Year candidate, it’s also an enormous financial hit. Developer the development team and publisher Kepler Interactive announced that the game surpassed five million copies in sales, this is even with its status as a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.

Its success came as a surprise to the developers. I firmly believed that we'd create a solid title garnering moderate market performance,” a senior team member commented.

Another leading developer pointed out this title's review aggregate, now standing at 93, was “maybe the biggest shock to the studio versus “our initial expectations and what the reality of the field was. Because when it dropped the entire team was screaming and jumping. The energy was electric.”

This triumph has led to the studio creating a free update for the title featuring fresh areas, enemies, plus epic encounters, which they said is coming sometime soon.

That said, as the title expands, it's unlikely the team will expand. Our team includes a talented crew under clear creative leadership with a clear direction for this game and future concepts. We'd like to keep the small-team dynamic that made this possible and perhaps create major titles sequentially,” the producer noted.

Their team size drummed up plenty of debate upon the title's release. Some developers, like Hideo Kojima, looked at this studio as the “ideal” for game development. Despite being indeed a small team next to major studios, a quick look at the game's credits reveals dozens of people worked on it; Sandfall contracted a Korean team handling movement and effects, as an instance.

“Some hiring will occur slightly more definitely should there be an increase in development in upcoming years,” the executive said. “Yet I picture more of a workshop comprising a handful highly skilled individuals capable of producing a work of art together.” They emphasized that their core belief as a studio “focuses on preserving the successful elements that made this achievement possible in the first place.”

Despite being too early for Sandfall to say specifically about future projects — believe me, I tried to get them to — the developers understand what’s at its core. “Turn-based gameplay, forms the foundation of this project,” they remarked. “It's still premature to announce our next interests, however, it's crucial to stay true to the DNA of studio featuring rich storytelling plus innovative play that drives our passion.”

The developer noted how this game originated from their director developing his passion title. We aspire that's something we can continue as well for future productions.”