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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a strong Game of the Year candidate, it’s also a huge commercial success. Developer Sandfall Interactive along with publisher Kepler Interactive revealed that this title surpassed 5 million units sold, and that’s in spite of its status as a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

Its success came as quite an unexpected turn for the team. I was convinced that we would have an enjoyable experience achieving some average market performance,” a senior team member commented.

The CTO and lead programmer remarked this title's Metacritic rating, which currently sits at 93, was “maybe the biggest shock for everyone versus “our initial expectations and the final result proved to be. Once it was published everybody in the studio were cheering loudly. It felt absolutely wild.”

This triumph has led to Sandfall developing a complimentary expansion for the game with a new environment, foes, and boss fights, as announced is coming in the next few months.

However, while the game is growing, it's unlikely the team will expand. “We have a talented crew under clear creative leadership with a clear direction for the project and future concepts. We intend to preserve the human scale that worked for this game and perhaps create large projects one by one,” the producer noted.

The studio's scale generated plenty of debate when the game came out. Some developers, like Hideo Kojima, looked at this studio as a perfect example for creative teams. Despite being truly compact versus large developers, a quick look at Expedition 33’s credits reveals dozens of people participated; the French studio partnered with overseas animators to work on gameplay animations, as an instance.

“We will hire a little more definitely should there be next an upcoming production peak in upcoming years,” they commented. “However, I envision more of a workshop of a few really talented people that can make a work of art together.” They emphasized that Sandfall’s vision as developers “aims to keep the key advantages that enabled this success from the start.”

While it may be not the right time to disclose concrete plans what’s next — rest assured, I attempted to learn more — they are certain what’s at its core. “Turn-based gameplay, I think it's in the DNA of our creations,” the lead programmer said. “It's still premature to announce what will interest us, yet we must to adhere to our studio's essence featuring rich storytelling plus innovative play that drives our passion.”

The lead programmer mentioned that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 started with the creative director pursuing his ideal project. And hopefully this approach will be repeated as well for future productions.”