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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a top GOTY contender, but also a massive financial hit. Developer the development team and publisher their publishing partner announced that the game surpassed 5 million units in sales, this is in spite of its status as a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

The game's performance came as quite a surprise for the team. “I was strongly believing that we would have a good game achieving reasonable market performance,” the COO and producer explained.

A technical director pointed out this title's Metacritic rating, now standing at 93, was the most surprising moment to the team versus what we anticipated and what the reality proved to be. When the score released all staff members was screaming and jumping. It was really frantic.”

The positive reception prompted work on a free update for the title with a new environment, foes, along with challenging bosses, as announced is coming within the “upcoming month[s]”.

That said, as the title expands, don’t expect the studio to grow. We've built a great team guided by a visionary director who has a great vision for the project and future concepts. We intend to preserve the small-team dynamic that led to our success and perhaps create large projects one by one,” the executive added.

The studio's scale generated significant conversation following launch. Some developers, such as the famed director, considered this studio as the model for game development. Despite being indeed a small team versus large developers, checking the game's credits shows that dozens of people worked on it; the French studio hired a team in Korea handling movement and effects, for example.

“We will hire slightly more definitely if we have a future production surge down the line,” they commented. “However, I envision essentially a craft studio of a few really talented people that create collective masterpieces.” They emphasized that the studio's philosophy as a company “focuses on preserving the successful elements that led to this accomplishment in the first place.”

Although it's too early for Sandfall to disclose concrete plans about future projects — and trust me, efforts were made — the team does know their essential identity. “Strategic combat, is integral to our identity of this project,” the lead programmer remarked. “The timing isn't right to announce what will interest us, but it's important also to stay true to the DNA of studio with [a] strong narrative universe and the interesting gameplay that drives our passion.”

The developer noted that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 started with their director developing his passion title. It is hoped this approach we can continue in coming projects.”