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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a top GOTY candidate, it’s also a huge commercial success. Developer Sandfall Interactive along with publisher their publishing partner announced that this title topped 5 million units in sales, and that’s even with its status as a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

Its success came as quite a surprise for the team. “I was strongly believing that we'd create an enjoyable experience garnering some average sales results,” a senior team member explained.

The CTO and lead programmer pointed out the game's critical score, which currently sits at 93, came as perhaps the greatest surprise” for everyone compared to our early predictions and the final result of the field was. Once it was published everybody in the studio were cheering loudly. The energy was electric.”

The positive reception prompted work on a free update for players including novel settings, foes, along with challenging bosses, which they said is coming sometime soon.

Nevertheless, while the game is growing, fans shouldn't anticipate they'll hire extensively. We've built a talented crew guided by a visionary director who has a great vision for the project plus upcoming innovations. Our goal is to maintain the small-team dynamic that worked for this game and do maybe large projects one by one,” they added.

Their team size generated a storm of discussion upon the title's release. Certain industry figures, such as the famed director, looked at this studio as a perfect example for game development. While Sandfall was and is relatively lean compared to its AAA counterparts, one glance at Expedition 33’s credits shows that dozens of people worked on it; Sandfall partnered with overseas animators handling movement and effects, for example.

“We plan to recruit a little more definitely when facing an increase in development in upcoming years,” they commented. “Yet I picture essentially a craft studio of a few exceptionally gifted creators that create collective masterpieces.” He noted that their core belief as a company “focuses on preserving the key advantages that led to this accomplishment from the start.”

Although it's premature for the studio to say specifically what’s next — and trust me, efforts were made — the team does know what’s at its core. “Strategic combat, I think it's in the DNA of what we built,” a developer remarked. “The timing isn't right to specify what will interest us, however, it's crucial to remain faithful to our creative core through compelling worlds and engaging mechanics that drives our passion.”

The lead programmer noted how this game originated from their director developing his passion title. It is hoped that's something we will be able to do in coming projects.”