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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just an impressive GOTY contender, it’s also a massive commercial success. Studio Sandfall Interactive and publisher Kepler Interactive announced that the game exceeded five million copies sold, and that’s even with it being a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

The game's performance came as a surprise to Sandfall. I firmly believed that we'd create an enjoyable experience achieving some average commercial success,” the COO and producer stated.

Another leading developer pointed out this title's critical score, rated 93 by critics, came as the greatest surprise” for everyone relative to our early predictions and the actual outcome proved to be. Once it was published all staff members celebrated excitedly. It was really frantic.”

This triumph has led to the studio creating a complimentary expansion for players including novel settings, enemies, plus epic encounters, which they said will release in the next few months.

However, while the game is growing, don’t expect they'll hire extensively. Our team includes a great team guided by a visionary director who has a great vision for our work plus upcoming innovations. Our goal is to maintain the small-team dynamic that worked for this game and perhaps create one big game after another,” the producer said.

Their team size sparked a storm of discussion upon the title's release. Some developers, such as the famed director, considered the development group as a perfect example for a studio. While Sandfall was and is truly compact versus large developers, a quick look at the title's staff list shows that numerous contributors participated; the French studio contracted a Korean team handling movement and effects, to illustrate.

“We plan to recruit a bit more definitely when facing a future production surge in upcoming years,” the executive said. “However, I envision essentially a craft studio of a few really talented people capable of producing artistic collaborations.” They emphasized that Sandfall’s vision as developers “aims to keep the strengths that enabled this success from the start.”

Despite being not the right time to disclose concrete plans regarding upcoming titles — and trust me, efforts were made — the team does know their fundamental principles. “Turn-based gameplay, forms the foundation of this project,” the lead programmer said. “It's a bit too early to specify our next interests, but it's important also to stay true to the DNA of studio featuring rich storytelling and the interesting gameplay that inspires the team.”

The developer noted that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 started with their director “work[ing] on his dream game. It is hoped that philosophy we will be able to do with upcoming games.”