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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only an impressive Game of the Year contender, it’s also an enormous sales triumph. Studio Sandfall Interactive and publisher their publishing partner revealed that this title topped 5 million units in sales, this is in spite of it being a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.

The game's performance was a surprise for the team. I firmly believed that we'd create an enjoyable experience that would meet reasonable market performance,” the COO and producer explained.

The CTO and lead programmer noted this title's critical score, rated 93 by critics, came as the most surprising moment to the studio relative to what we anticipated and what the reality of the field was. Once it was published everybody in the studio was screaming and jumping. It felt absolutely wild.”

This triumph has led to Sandfall developing a complimentary expansion for the title featuring fresh areas, foes, plus epic encounters, which they said will release sometime soon.

Nevertheless, as the title expands, it's unlikely they'll hire extensively. “We have a great team with a strong creative director with a clear direction for this game and future concepts. Our goal is to maintain the small-team dynamic that worked for this game and do maybe one big game after another,” the executive said.

Their team size drummed up significant conversation when the game came out. A few well-known creators, including renowned designers, considered this studio as the “ideal” for creative teams. Despite being truly compact compared to its AAA counterparts, checking Expedition 33’s credits indicates numerous contributors were involved; Sandfall contracted a Korean team for animation work, as an instance.

“Some hiring will occur a bit more for sure when facing an increase in development in upcoming years,” the executive commented. “However, I envision essentially a craft studio comprising a handful exceptionally gifted creators that create a work of art together.” It was stated that their core belief as a studio “is more to maintain the successful elements that led to this accomplishment in the first place.”

Despite being too early for Sandfall to say specifically regarding upcoming titles — rest assured, I attempted to learn more — the team does know their essential identity. “Strategic combat, I think it's in the DNA of this project,” a developer remarked. “It's a bit too early to specify our next interests, however, it's crucial to adhere to our studio's essence with [a] strong narrative universe plus innovative play that inspires the team.”

The lead programmer noted that the project started with the visionary “work[ing] on his dream game. We aspire that's something we will be able to do as well for future productions.”