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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a strong Game of the Year contender, but also a huge commercial success. Studio Sandfall Interactive along with publisher Kepler Interactive disclosed that this title exceeded five million copies sold, this is even with it being a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.

The game's performance came as a surprise to the developers. I firmly believed that we'd create a solid title achieving moderate market performance,” the COO and producer commented.

The CTO and lead programmer noted this title's review aggregate, rated 93 by critics, came as the greatest surprise” for everyone relative to “our initial expectations and the actual outcome of the field was. When the score released all staff members celebrated excitedly. It felt absolutely wild.”

The positive reception prompted the studio creating a free update for the title including novel settings, foes, plus epic encounters, which they said is coming within the “upcoming month[s]”.

However, despite the game's evolution, fans shouldn't anticipate the team will expand. We've built an excellent group guided by a visionary director who has a great vision for our work and future concepts. Our goal is to maintain the close-knit size that worked for this game then develop large projects one by one,” the executive added.

The size of Sandfall drummed up a storm of discussion upon the title's release. Some developers, including renowned designers, looked at the development group as a perfect example for creative teams. Despite being relatively lean versus large developers, one glance at the title's staff list shows that dozens of people participated; Sandfall hired a team in Korea handling movement and effects, for example.

“Some hiring will occur slightly more for sure if we have next an upcoming production peak in upcoming years,” the executive commented. “Yet I picture more of a workshop of a few really talented people that create collective masterpieces.” He noted that their core belief as a studio “focuses on preserving the successful elements that enabled this success in the first place.”

Despite being premature for the studio to disclose concrete plans regarding upcoming titles — rest assured, efforts were made — the team does know their essential identity. “The turn-based aspect, forms the foundation of our creations,” they said. “It's still premature to announce our next interests, but it's important also to adhere to the DNA of studio through compelling worlds and engaging mechanics that excites us.”

The developer mentioned that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 originated from their director “work[ing] on his dream game. It is hoped this approach we will be able to do with upcoming games.”