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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a top Game of the Year candidate, but also a huge financial hit. Developer the development team along with publisher Kepler Interactive announced that the game surpassed 5 million units sold, and that’s in spite of its status as a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

This achievement came as quite a shock to Sandfall. “I was strongly believing that we'd create an enjoyable experience achieving some average market performance,” a key executive commented.

A technical director pointed out this title's critical score, rated 93 by critics, was the greatest surprise” to the studio versus what we anticipated and what the reality of the field was. Once it was published everybody in the studio were cheering loudly. It felt absolutely wild.”

This triumph has led to the studio creating a complimentary expansion for players with a new environment, enemies, plus epic encounters, reportedly would be out within the “upcoming month[s]”.

That said, despite the game's evolution, don’t expect they'll hire extensively. Our team includes an excellent group under clear creative leadership with a clear direction for this game plus upcoming innovations. We'd like to keep the small-team dynamic that made this possible then develop major titles sequentially,” the producer added.

The size of Sandfall sparked a storm of discussion following launch. Certain industry figures, including renowned designers, viewed Sandfall’s team as a perfect example for creative teams. Despite being truly compact versus large developers, checking the game's credits indicates numerous contributors worked on it; the French studio partnered with overseas animators for animation work, as an instance.

“We will hire a little more for sure should there be an increase in development down the line,” the producer said. “However, I envision essentially a craft studio comprising a handful highly skilled individuals that can make collective masterpieces.” They emphasized that the studio's philosophy as a company “aims to keep the strengths that led to this accomplishment in the first place.”

Despite being premature for the studio to say specifically regarding upcoming titles — rest assured, efforts were made — the developers understand their essential identity. “Turn-based gameplay, I think it's in the DNA of this project,” the lead programmer said. “It's still premature to be able to tell future passions, yet we must to adhere to our creative core through compelling worlds plus innovative play that excites us.”

The lead programmer mentioned that the project originated from the visionary developing his passion title. And hopefully that philosophy we can continue in coming projects.”