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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a top Game of the Year candidate, it’s also a huge sales triumph. Studio the development team along with publisher Kepler Interactive disclosed that this title surpassed 5 million units sold, this is even with it being a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

This achievement came as quite a surprise for the team. “I was strongly believing that we'd create a solid title that would meet reasonable sales results,” the COO and producer commented.

Another leading developer noted this title's Metacritic rating, which currently sits at 93, was the greatest surprise” to the studio relative to “our initial expectations and the actual outcome turned out to be. When the score released everybody in the studio was screaming and jumping. It was really frantic.”

The positive reception prompted Sandfall developing a free update for the title featuring fresh areas, enemies, along with challenging bosses, which they said would be out in the next few months.

Nevertheless, despite the game's evolution, it's unlikely the team will expand. Our team includes an excellent group under clear creative leadership possessing strong ideas for this game and future concepts. We'd like to keep the human scale that made this possible and perhaps create one big game after another,” the producer noted.

The studio's scale generated significant conversation upon the title's release. Some developers, like Hideo Kojima, looked at this studio as the “ideal” for a studio. Although the team is and was relatively lean compared to its AAA counterparts, a quick look at the title's staff list shows that dozens of people worked on it; Sandfall partnered with overseas animators handling movement and effects, as an instance.

“We will hire slightly more certainly should there be an increase in development in upcoming years,” the producer said. “However, I envision rather a creative atelier comprising a handful highly skilled individuals capable of producing artistic collaborations.” They emphasized that the studio's philosophy as a company “aims to keep the strengths that led to this accomplishment in the first place.”

Despite being premature for the studio to say specifically what’s next — and trust me, efforts were made — they are certain what’s at its core. “Turn-based gameplay, is integral to our identity of our creations,” a developer remarked. “The timing isn't right to specify what will interest us, yet we must to adhere to our studio's essence featuring rich storytelling and engaging mechanics that drives our passion.”

The developer noted that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 originated from the creative director “work[ing] on his dream game. We aspire this approach will be repeated in coming projects.”