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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only an impressive Game of the Year candidate, but also an enormous commercial success. Studio Sandfall Interactive and publisher their publishing partner announced that the game topped 5 million units sold, and that’s in spite of it being a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

This achievement came as a shock to Sandfall. I was convinced that we'd create a solid title garnering reasonable sales results,” a senior team member stated.

A technical director pointed out this title's review aggregate, rated 93 by critics, came as “maybe the biggest shock to the studio compared to “our initial expectations and what the reality turned out to be. Because when it dropped all staff members were cheering loudly. It felt absolutely wild.”

The positive reception has led to work on a complimentary expansion for players including novel settings, enemies, along with challenging bosses, as announced will release within the “upcoming month[s]”.

Nevertheless, while the game is growing, it's unlikely they'll hire extensively. “We have a talented crew under clear creative leadership who has a great vision for this game and also for new ideas. We intend to preserve the human scale that worked for this game and perhaps create one big game after another,” the executive said.

Their team size generated significant conversation upon the title's release. Certain industry figures, like Hideo Kojima, considered the development group as the model for creative teams. Although the team is and was relatively lean versus large developers, one glance at the title's staff list reveals many individuals worked on it; the French studio partnered with overseas animators to work on gameplay animations, for example.

“We plan to recruit a little more certainly when facing next an upcoming production peak in upcoming years,” they commented. “Yet I picture essentially a craft studio comprising a handful really talented people that can make collective masterpieces.” They emphasized that the studio's philosophy as a studio “is more to maintain the strengths that led to this accomplishment from the start.”

While it may be too early for Sandfall to disclose concrete plans what’s next — rest assured, I tried to get them to — the developers understand their fundamental principles. “Turn-based gameplay, I think it's in the DNA of this project,” a developer explained. “It's a bit too early to specify our next interests, but it's important also to stay true to our studio's essence through compelling worlds and engaging mechanics that inspires the team.”

They mentioned that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 began with their director pursuing his ideal project. And hopefully that philosophy we can continue as well for future productions.”