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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only an impressive GOTY contender, it’s also a huge commercial success. Studio Sandfall Interactive and publisher Kepler Interactive announced that the game surpassed five million copies in sales, and that’s despite its status as a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

The game's performance came as a surprise to the developers. “I was strongly believing that we'd create a solid title garnering some average sales results,” a key executive explained.

Another leading developer noted this title's Metacritic rating, now standing at 93, was the most surprising moment for everyone versus what we anticipated and what the reality proved to be. Once it was published the entire team were cheering loudly. It was really frantic.”

The positive reception has led to Sandfall developing a complimentary expansion for the title including novel settings, enemies, and boss fights, as announced would be out in the next few months.

Nevertheless, as the title expands, fans shouldn't anticipate they'll hire extensively. We've built an excellent group under clear creative leadership possessing strong ideas for the project and also for new ideas. We intend to preserve the human scale that led to our success then develop one big game after another,” they noted.

Their team size sparked significant conversation following launch. A few well-known creators, like Hideo Kojima, considered the development group as the “ideal” for creative teams. Although the team is and was relatively lean compared to its AAA counterparts, checking the game's credits indicates dozens of people participated; the French studio partnered with overseas animators for animation work, as an instance.

“Some hiring will occur slightly more for sure should there be a future production surge in the coming years,” they said. “But I would see essentially a craft studio comprising a handful highly skilled individuals that create artistic collaborations.” It was stated that Sandfall’s vision as a company “aims to keep the strengths that led to this accomplishment originally.”

While it may be too early for Sandfall to reveal exact details about future projects — and trust me, I attempted to learn more — the team does know what’s at its core. “The turn-based aspect, I think it's in the DNA of our creations,” the lead programmer remarked. “It's a bit too early to be able to tell what will interest us, yet we must to adhere to our studio's essence featuring rich storytelling plus innovative play that inspires the team.”

The lead programmer added how this game started with the creative director pursuing his ideal project. It is hoped that philosophy will be repeated with upcoming games.”