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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just an impressive Game of the Year candidate, but also an enormous commercial success. Developer Sandfall Interactive and publisher Kepler Interactive revealed that the game exceeded 5 million units in sales, this is despite its status as a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

Its success came as quite a surprise to the developers. I firmly believed that we'd create a solid title garnering reasonable commercial success,” a key executive commented.

Another leading developer pointed out the game's critical score, now standing at 93, was the greatest surprise” to the team relative to “our initial expectations and what the reality proved to be. Because when it dropped all staff members celebrated excitedly. It was really frantic.”

That success has led to Sandfall developing a complimentary expansion for the game featuring fresh areas, foes, plus epic encounters, which they said would be out within the “upcoming month[s]”.

However, despite the game's evolution, it's unlikely they'll hire extensively. Our team includes a great team guided by a visionary director possessing strong ideas for this game and also for new ideas. Our goal is to maintain the small-team dynamic that led to our success and perhaps create large projects one by one,” they added.

The size of Sandfall generated a storm of discussion upon the title's release. Some developers, including renowned designers, looked at the development group as the “ideal” for game development. Although the team is and was relatively lean versus large developers, one glance at the title's staff list indicates numerous contributors worked on it; the French studio contracted a Korean team for animation work, to illustrate.

“Some hiring will occur a little more definitely if we have an increase in development down the line,” the executive stated. “Yet I picture rather a creative atelier comprising a handful exceptionally gifted creators that can make collective masterpieces.” They emphasized that their core belief as a company “is more to maintain the strengths that enabled this success in the first place.”

Although it's premature for the studio to reveal exact details regarding upcoming titles — and trust me, efforts were made — they are certain their essential identity. “Turn-based gameplay, is integral to our identity of our creations,” they remarked. “It's a bit too early to specify our next interests, however, it's crucial to remain faithful to our studio's essence with [a] strong narrative universe and engaging mechanics that excites us.”

They added that the project began with the visionary “work[ing] on his dream game. And hopefully that philosophy we can continue in coming projects.”