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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a top Game of the Year candidate, it’s also a huge sales triumph. Studio Sandfall Interactive along with publisher their publishing partner announced that this title exceeded five million copies sold, and that’s in spite of its status as a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

Its success came as an unexpected turn to Sandfall. I firmly believed that we'd create an enjoyable experience achieving moderate market performance,” a key executive commented.

The CTO and lead programmer noted that Clair Obscur’s Metacritic rating, now standing at 93, was the greatest surprise” to the studio versus “our initial expectations and the actual outcome of the field was. Because when it dropped the entire team celebrated excitedly. The energy was electric.”

The positive reception has led to Sandfall developing a free update for the title featuring fresh areas, adversaries, along with challenging bosses, as announced would be out within the “upcoming month[s]”.

That said, as the title expands, don’t expect the team will expand. Our team includes a great team with a strong creative director possessing strong ideas for the project and also for new ideas. We'd like to keep the small-team dynamic that led to our success then develop major titles sequentially,” they noted.

The size of Sandfall sparked a storm of discussion upon the title's release. Certain industry figures, like Hideo Kojima, considered Sandfall’s team as the “ideal” for game development. While Sandfall was and is truly compact compared to its AAA counterparts, a quick look at Expedition 33’s credits indicates dozens of people participated; the French studio partnered with overseas animators handling movement and effects, as an instance.

“We will hire a little more certainly if we have next an upcoming production peak in upcoming years,” they commented. “However, I envision more of a workshop of a few exceptionally gifted creators that can make collective masterpieces.” They emphasized that Sandfall’s vision as a studio “is more to maintain the successful elements that made this achievement possible from the start.”

Although it's premature for the studio to disclose concrete plans what’s next — believe me, I tried to get them to — they are certain what’s at its core. “The turn-based aspect, is integral to our identity of our creations,” they explained. “The timing isn't right to announce what will interest us, but it's important also to stay true to the DNA of studio featuring rich storytelling and engaging mechanics that drives our passion.”

The lead programmer noted that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 started with the creative director pursuing his ideal project. It is hoped that philosophy we can continue with upcoming games.”