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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a strong GOTY contender, it’s also a massive commercial success. Studio the development team along with publisher Kepler Interactive disclosed that the game surpassed 5 million units in sales, this is despite its status as a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.

This achievement was a surprise for the team. “I was strongly believing that we would have an enjoyable experience garnering some average market performance,” a senior team member explained.

A technical director remarked the game's review aggregate, rated 93 by critics, came as perhaps “maybe the biggest shock for everyone relative to our early predictions and what the reality turned out to be. When the score released everybody in the studio were cheering loudly. The energy was electric.”

This triumph has led to the studio creating new free content for the title with a new environment, adversaries, along with challenging bosses, which they said is coming within the “upcoming month[s]”.

That said, as the title expands, fans shouldn't anticipate they'll hire extensively. “We have a talented crew guided by a visionary director with a clear direction for this game plus upcoming innovations. We intend to preserve the human scale that led to our success and perhaps create large projects one by one,” they added.

The size of Sandfall sparked a storm of discussion when the game came out. Certain industry figures, like Hideo Kojima, looked at Sandfall’s team as a perfect example for creative teams. Despite being indeed a small team versus large developers, a quick look at Expedition 33’s credits reveals dozens of people were involved; Sandfall contracted a Korean team for animation work, to illustrate.

“We plan to recruit a little more for sure should there be a future production surge down the line,” they commented. “Yet I picture rather a creative atelier comprising a handful really talented people that create a work of art together.” He noted that the studio's philosophy as a company “aims to keep the key advantages that led to this accomplishment in the first place.”

Although it's not the right time to reveal exact details regarding upcoming titles — and trust me, efforts were made — the team does know what’s at its core. “Turn-based gameplay, is integral to our identity of our creations,” they explained. “The timing isn't right to announce future passions, but it's important also to adhere to our studio's essence through compelling worlds and the interesting gameplay that drives our passion.”

They mentioned how this game originated from the visionary “work[ing] on his dream game. We aspire this approach we can continue as well for future productions.”