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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a top GOTY candidate, it’s also an enormous commercial success. Developer Sandfall Interactive and publisher Kepler Interactive announced that the game topped 5 million units sold, this is in spite of it being a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.

Its success came as quite an unexpected turn to Sandfall. “I was strongly believing that we would have a solid title achieving some average market performance,” a key executive stated.

The CTO and lead programmer remarked that Clair Obscur’s Metacritic rating, now standing at 93, came as perhaps “maybe the biggest shock to the team versus our early predictions and the final result proved to be. Once it was published everybody in the studio was screaming and jumping. It was really frantic.”

The positive reception has led to Sandfall developing a free update for players featuring fresh areas, enemies, along with challenging bosses, as announced will release within the “upcoming month[s]”.

However, while the game is growing, it's unlikely they'll hire extensively. “We have a great team under clear creative leadership with a clear direction for our work plus upcoming innovations. Our goal is to maintain the human scale that led to our success then develop large projects one by one,” the producer noted.

The size of Sandfall drummed up plenty of debate following launch. A few well-known creators, like Hideo Kojima, viewed this studio as a perfect example for creative teams. Although the team is and was indeed a small team next to major studios, one glance at Expedition 33’s credits indicates many individuals worked on it; the French studio hired a team in Korea for animation work, as an instance.

“Some hiring will occur a little more certainly if we have a future production surge in the coming years,” the executive commented. “Yet I picture more of a workshop of a few really talented people that create artistic collaborations.” It was stated that Sandfall’s vision as a studio “focuses on preserving the successful elements that led to this accomplishment from the start.”

Although it's too early for Sandfall to disclose concrete plans what’s next — and trust me, I tried to get them to — they are certain their fundamental principles. “The turn-based aspect, is integral to our identity of our creations,” a developer explained. “It's still premature to announce our next interests, but it's important also to adhere to our creative core featuring rich storytelling and engaging mechanics that drives our passion.”

The lead programmer noted that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 began with the creative director developing his passion title. We aspire that's something we can continue with upcoming games.”