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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a strong GOTY candidate, it’s also a massive financial hit. Studio Sandfall Interactive along with publisher Kepler Interactive revealed that this title surpassed five million copies in sales, and that’s despite it being a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

Its success came as an unexpected turn for the team. I was convinced that we'd create a solid title garnering moderate sales results,” a senior team member stated.

A technical director noted that Clair Obscur’s Metacritic rating, rated 93 by critics, came as the most surprising moment to the studio versus “our initial expectations and the actual outcome turned out to be. Once it was published all staff members was screaming and jumping. The energy was electric.”

That success resulted in the studio creating a free update for the game including novel settings, adversaries, and boss fights, as announced will release within the “upcoming month[s]”.

That said, despite the game's evolution, don’t expect the team will expand. We've built an excellent group guided by a visionary director who has a great vision for the project plus upcoming innovations. We'd like to keep the small-team dynamic that worked for this game and perhaps create one big game after another,” they added.

The studio's scale generated a storm of discussion following launch. A few well-known creators, such as the famed director, considered the development group as the model for game development. Despite being indeed a small team compared to its AAA counterparts, checking Expedition 33’s credits reveals numerous contributors were involved; Sandfall partnered with overseas animators handling movement and effects, to illustrate.

“Some hiring will occur a bit more definitely if we have next an upcoming production peak down the line,” the producer commented. “Yet I picture essentially a craft studio with a small number of exceptionally gifted creators capable of producing collective masterpieces.” They emphasized that the studio's philosophy as a company “is more to maintain the key advantages that enabled this success in the first place.”

While it may be too early for Sandfall to disclose concrete plans regarding upcoming titles — rest assured, efforts were made — they are certain their fundamental principles. “Turn-based gameplay, I think it's in the DNA of our creations,” a developer explained. “The timing isn't right to specify future passions, yet we must to remain faithful to our creative core through compelling worlds and the interesting gameplay that drives our passion.”

The developer mentioned that the project originated from their director “work[ing] on his dream game. And hopefully that's something we will be able to do with upcoming games.”