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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a strong GOTY candidate, it’s also a massive commercial success. Developer the development team along with publisher Kepler Interactive disclosed that the game exceeded 5 million units sold, and that’s even with it being a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.

This achievement came as a surprise for the team. I was convinced that we'd create a good game that would meet some average commercial success,” a senior team member commented.

The CTO and lead programmer noted this title's review aggregate, now standing at 93, came as the most surprising moment to the team versus “our initial expectations and the actual outcome of the field was. Because when it dropped everybody in the studio celebrated excitedly. It was really frantic.”

That success resulted in the studio creating a complimentary expansion for the game with a new environment, adversaries, and boss fights, as announced will release within the “upcoming month[s]”.

That said, as the title expands, don’t expect the team will expand. “We have a talented crew with a strong creative director with a clear direction for this game and also for new ideas. We'd like to keep the human scale that worked for this game then develop major titles sequentially,” the producer said.

Their team size drummed up a storm of discussion following launch. Certain industry figures, like Hideo Kojima, viewed the development group as the model for game development. Despite being relatively lean next to major studios, a quick look at the title's staff list reveals dozens of people participated; the French studio partnered with overseas animators for animation work, for example.

“We plan to recruit slightly more certainly if we have next an upcoming production peak down the line,” the executive said. “However, I envision essentially a craft studio comprising a handful really talented people capable of producing collective masterpieces.” He noted that Sandfall’s vision as developers “is more to maintain the strengths that made this achievement possible from the start.”

Although it's premature for the studio to disclose concrete plans about future projects — rest assured, I attempted to learn more — they are certain their essential identity. “Strategic combat, is integral to our identity of our creations,” a developer explained. “It's a bit too early to be able to tell future passions, but it's important also to remain faithful to the DNA of studio through compelling worlds plus innovative play that excites us.”

They added that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 began with the creative director pursuing his ideal project. We aspire that philosophy we will be able to do as well for future productions.”