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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a top GOTY candidate, but also an enormous commercial success. Developer Sandfall Interactive along with publisher their publishing partner revealed that this title surpassed 5 million units in sales, and that’s in spite of it being a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.

Its success came as a shock to Sandfall. “I was strongly believing that we would have a good game achieving some average sales results,” the COO and producer commented.

The CTO and lead programmer pointed out this title's review aggregate, rated 93 by critics, came as perhaps the most surprising moment to the team compared to “our initial expectations and the actual outcome of the field was. Once it was published the entire team celebrated excitedly. The energy was electric.”

The positive reception prompted work on a free update for the game featuring fresh areas, foes, along with challenging bosses, as announced would be out sometime soon.

However, as the title expands, don’t expect the team will expand. We've built an excellent group with a strong creative director who has a great vision for this game plus upcoming innovations. Our goal is to maintain the close-knit size that made this possible then develop one big game after another,” they added.

The size of Sandfall generated significant conversation following launch. Certain industry figures, including renowned designers, looked at this studio as the “ideal” for creative teams. While Sandfall was and is indeed a small team next to major studios, a quick look at Expedition 33’s credits indicates numerous contributors worked on it; the French studio hired a team in Korea to work on gameplay animations, as an instance.

“We will hire a little more for sure when facing an increase in development in the coming years,” the executive said. “However, I envision essentially a craft studio with a small number of exceptionally gifted creators that create collective masterpieces.” He noted that the studio's philosophy as a company “aims to keep the strengths that led to this accomplishment originally.”

While it may be too early for Sandfall to say specifically about future projects — rest assured, I tried to get them to — the team does know their essential identity. “The turn-based aspect, is integral to our identity of our creations,” the lead programmer remarked. “The timing isn't right to specify what will interest us, but it's important also to stay true to our studio's essence through compelling worlds plus innovative play that excites us.”

They mentioned that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 started with the visionary developing his passion title. It is hoped that philosophy will be repeated with upcoming games.”