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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a strong Game of the Year candidate, it’s also an enormous commercial success. Developer Sandfall Interactive along with publisher their publishing partner revealed that the game topped 5 million units sold, this is even with its status as a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

This achievement came as quite an unexpected turn for the team. I was convinced that we'd create a solid title achieving moderate commercial success,” a senior team member stated.

A technical director noted this title's review aggregate, rated 93 by critics, was the greatest surprise” to the studio relative to “our initial expectations and the actual outcome proved to be. When the score released everybody in the studio was screaming and jumping. It was really frantic.”

That success prompted Sandfall developing new free content for the title with a new environment, enemies, plus epic encounters, as announced is coming within the “upcoming month[s]”.

However, as the title expands, don’t expect the team will expand. “We have an excellent group with a strong creative director with a clear direction for this game and future concepts. Our goal is to maintain the close-knit size that led to our success then develop one big game after another,” the executive noted.

The studio's scale generated plenty of debate upon the title's release. Certain industry figures, including renowned designers, considered this studio as a perfect example for a studio. Despite being indeed a small team compared to its AAA counterparts, one glance at Expedition 33’s credits shows that dozens of people were involved; Sandfall partnered with overseas animators to work on gameplay animations, as an instance.

“We will hire slightly more definitely when facing next an upcoming production peak in upcoming years,” the producer commented. “However, I envision essentially a craft studio comprising a handful really talented people that create artistic collaborations.” He noted that the studio's philosophy as a studio “focuses on preserving the key advantages that led to this accomplishment originally.”

While it may be not the right time to say specifically regarding upcoming titles — rest assured, I tried to get them to — they are certain their fundamental principles. “Turn-based gameplay, is integral to our identity of what we built,” the lead programmer said. “The timing isn't right to specify what will interest us, yet we must to adhere to our studio's essence with [a] strong narrative universe plus innovative play that drives our passion.”

The lead programmer mentioned that the project began with the creative director pursuing his ideal project. We aspire that's something we can continue with upcoming games.”