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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a top GOTY candidate, it’s also a huge financial hit. Studio the development team along with publisher their publishing partner disclosed that this title exceeded 5 million units in sales, and that’s despite it being a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.

This achievement came as a surprise to the developers. I firmly believed that we would have an enjoyable experience garnering reasonable sales results,” a key executive commented.

Another leading developer pointed out the game's Metacritic rating, now standing at 93, came as the most surprising moment to the team relative to “our initial expectations and the actual outcome of the field was. When the score released the entire team was screaming and jumping. It felt absolutely wild.”

The positive reception has led to Sandfall developing a complimentary expansion for the game featuring fresh areas, enemies, and boss fights, reportedly would be out sometime soon.

Nevertheless, as the title expands, fans shouldn't anticipate the team will expand. We've built a talented crew guided by a visionary director possessing strong ideas for our work and future concepts. Our goal is to maintain the close-knit size that worked for this game then develop major titles sequentially,” the executive added.

The studio's scale drummed up a storm of discussion when the game came out. Certain industry figures, including renowned designers, looked at the development group as the model for a studio. Although the team is and was relatively lean versus large developers, one glance at the title's staff list shows that numerous contributors participated; the French studio contracted a Korean team to work on gameplay animations, for example.

“We plan to recruit slightly more definitely should there be next an upcoming production peak in the coming years,” the executive stated. “Yet I picture rather a creative atelier with a small number of exceptionally gifted creators that can make a work of art together.” It was stated that the studio's philosophy as developers “is more to maintain the strengths that enabled this success in the first place.”

While it may be too early for Sandfall to disclose concrete plans what’s next — rest assured, efforts were made — they are certain their essential identity. “Turn-based gameplay, forms the foundation of this project,” the lead programmer remarked. “It's still premature to specify future passions, yet we must to adhere to the DNA of studio featuring rich storytelling and engaging mechanics that inspires the team.”

The developer added how this game originated from their director “work[ing] on his dream game. It is hoped that's something we will be able to do with upcoming games.”