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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just an impressive Game of the Year contender, it’s also an enormous financial hit. Studio the development team and publisher Kepler Interactive announced that this title surpassed 5 million units sold, this is in spite of it being a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.

Its success came as quite an unexpected turn for the team. “I was strongly believing that we would have a solid title achieving some average sales results,” a senior team member commented.

Another leading developer remarked the game's Metacritic rating, which currently sits at 93, came as perhaps the greatest surprise” for everyone versus our early predictions and the actual outcome turned out to be. When the score released all staff members celebrated excitedly. It felt absolutely wild.”

This triumph has led to work on a complimentary expansion for the game featuring fresh areas, enemies, along with challenging bosses, as announced is coming in the next few months.

That said, despite the game's evolution, fans shouldn't anticipate the team will expand. “We have a talented crew with a strong creative director who has a great vision for our work and future concepts. Our goal is to maintain the close-knit size that worked for this game then develop one big game after another,” they said.

The studio's scale generated plenty of debate following launch. Certain industry figures, including renowned designers, viewed Sandfall’s team as a perfect example for creative teams. Despite being relatively lean versus large developers, a quick look at Expedition 33’s credits reveals many individuals were involved; the French studio contracted a Korean team to work on gameplay animations, as an instance.

“We will hire slightly more definitely should there be a future production surge in the coming years,” they stated. “However, I envision rather a creative atelier with a small number of highly skilled individuals capable of producing a work of art together.” It was stated that the studio's philosophy as developers “focuses on preserving the successful elements that enabled this success originally.”

While it may be not the right time to reveal exact details about future projects — believe me, efforts were made — they are certain their fundamental principles. “Strategic combat, is integral to our identity of this project,” the lead programmer explained. “It's still premature to be able to tell our next interests, however, it's crucial to remain faithful to our studio's essence through compelling worlds plus innovative play that inspires the team.”

The developer noted that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 started with the creative director pursuing his ideal project. It is hoped this approach will be repeated in coming projects.”