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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only an impressive Game of the Year candidate, but also a huge commercial success. Developer the development team along with publisher their publishing partner disclosed that the game surpassed 5 million units sold, and that’s despite its status as a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.

The game's performance came as quite an unexpected turn to the developers. I was convinced that we'd create an enjoyable experience that would meet reasonable sales results,” the COO and producer stated.

Another leading developer noted that Clair Obscur’s review aggregate, which currently sits at 93, came as “maybe the biggest shock to the studio compared to our early predictions and the actual outcome proved to be. Once it was published all staff members celebrated excitedly. It felt absolutely wild.”

This triumph has led to work on a free update for the game including novel settings, enemies, along with challenging bosses, as announced is coming sometime soon.

That said, while the game is growing, it's unlikely the studio to grow. We've built a great team under clear creative leadership who has a great vision for our work plus upcoming innovations. Our goal is to maintain the human scale that led to our success and perhaps create large projects one by one,” they added.

The size of Sandfall drummed up significant conversation when the game came out. A few well-known creators, such as the famed director, looked at Sandfall’s team as the model for a studio. Although the team is and was relatively lean next to major studios, one glance at the game's credits indicates dozens of people worked on it; the French studio hired a team in Korea handling movement and effects, as an instance.

“We plan to recruit a little more for sure if we have an increase in development in the coming years,” the executive said. “Yet I picture rather a creative atelier of a few exceptionally gifted creators that create a work of art together.” It was stated that the studio's philosophy as a company “aims to keep the successful elements that led to this accomplishment from the start.”

While it may be not the right time to reveal exact details regarding upcoming titles — and trust me, I tried to get them to — the team does know what’s at its core. “Turn-based gameplay, forms the foundation of our creations,” they remarked. “The timing isn't right to announce our next interests, but it's important also to stay true to our studio's essence featuring rich storytelling and the interesting gameplay that inspires the team.”

They added that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 originated from their director pursuing his ideal project. It is hoped this approach we can continue with upcoming games.”