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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a top GOTY candidate, but also a huge commercial success. Studio Sandfall Interactive and publisher Kepler Interactive revealed that the game surpassed 5 million units sold, and that’s even with its status as a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

This achievement came as a shock to the developers. “I was strongly believing that we'd create a good game achieving moderate commercial success,” a key executive commented.

Another leading developer pointed out this title's Metacritic rating, which currently sits at 93, came as perhaps the most surprising moment for everyone versus our early predictions and what the reality proved to be. Once it was published the entire team was screaming and jumping. It was really frantic.”

This triumph resulted in Sandfall developing new free content for the title with a new environment, adversaries, plus epic encounters, reportedly is coming sometime soon.

That said, as the title expands, it's unlikely the team will expand. We've built an excellent group guided by a visionary director with a clear direction for our work and also for new ideas. Our goal is to maintain the close-knit size that made this possible then develop one big game after another,” they said.

The size of Sandfall generated a storm of discussion following launch. A few well-known creators, such as the famed director, looked at Sandfall’s team as the model for game development. Although the team is and was relatively lean next to major studios, a quick look at the game's credits indicates dozens of people participated; the French studio partnered with overseas animators handling movement and effects, as an instance.

“We will hire slightly more certainly when facing next an upcoming production peak in upcoming years,” the executive stated. “Yet I picture more of a workshop with a small number of really talented people that can make collective masterpieces.” It was stated that the studio's philosophy as developers “aims to keep the key advantages that led to this accomplishment in the first place.”

While it may be premature for the studio to reveal exact details what’s next — and trust me, efforts were made — the team does know their essential identity. “The turn-based aspect, forms the foundation of what we built,” a developer explained. “The timing isn't right to be able to tell our next interests, yet we must to stay true to the DNA of studio with [a] strong narrative universe and engaging mechanics that drives our passion.”

They added how this game started with their director “work[ing] on his dream game. It is hoped this approach will be repeated in coming projects.”