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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a strong Game of the Year candidate, it’s also a massive financial hit. Developer Sandfall Interactive and publisher Kepler Interactive announced that the game topped 5 million units in sales, this is even with its status as a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.

This achievement came as quite a shock for the team. I firmly believed that we'd create a solid title that would meet moderate sales results,” a key executive explained.

A technical director remarked the game's review aggregate, rated 93 by critics, came as the greatest surprise” for everyone versus “our initial expectations and what the reality of the field was. Because when it dropped all staff members was screaming and jumping. The energy was electric.”

The positive reception prompted the studio creating a complimentary expansion for the title featuring fresh areas, foes, and boss fights, as announced is coming in the next few months.

Nevertheless, while the game is growing, it's unlikely the studio to grow. Our team includes a great team with a strong creative director possessing strong ideas for our work plus upcoming innovations. We intend to preserve the close-knit size that led to our success then develop one big game after another,” they said.

The studio's scale sparked plenty of debate when the game came out. Some developers, including renowned designers, viewed the development group as the “ideal” for a studio. Although the team is and was indeed a small team compared to its AAA counterparts, checking the game's credits reveals dozens of people worked on it; Sandfall partnered with overseas animators to work on gameplay animations, to illustrate.

“We will hire a little more definitely when facing an increase in development down the line,” the producer said. “Yet I picture more of a workshop of a few highly skilled individuals that create artistic collaborations.” They emphasized that the studio's philosophy as a studio “is more to maintain the key advantages that led to this accomplishment originally.”

Despite being premature for the studio to say specifically regarding upcoming titles — rest assured, I tried to get them to — the developers understand what’s at its core. “The turn-based aspect, is integral to our identity of this project,” a developer said. “It's a bit too early to be able to tell what will interest us, but it's important also to stay true to our studio's essence with [a] strong narrative universe plus innovative play that excites us.”

The developer mentioned how this game originated from their director pursuing his ideal project. We aspire that's something we can continue with upcoming games.”