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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only an impressive Game of the Year candidate, but also an enormous sales triumph. Developer Sandfall Interactive along with publisher their publishing partner announced that this title topped five million copies in sales, and that’s even with its status as a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.

The game's performance came as an unexpected turn for the team. “I was strongly believing that we'd create a solid title that would meet moderate commercial success,” a key executive explained.

The CTO and lead programmer noted that Clair Obscur’s review aggregate, which currently sits at 93, came as the most surprising moment to the team versus what we anticipated and the final result proved to be. When the score released everybody in the studio was screaming and jumping. The energy was electric.”

That success has led to Sandfall developing a complimentary expansion for the game including novel settings, enemies, and boss fights, as announced is coming sometime soon.

That said, as the title expands, don’t expect the team will expand. We've built an excellent group with a strong creative director with a clear direction for the project plus upcoming innovations. We'd like to keep the human scale that worked for this game and do maybe large projects one by one,” the executive noted.

Their team size sparked a storm of discussion when the game came out. Some developers, such as the famed director, considered this studio as the model for creative teams. Despite being truly compact compared to its AAA counterparts, one glance at the title's staff list reveals numerous contributors worked on it; the French studio hired a team in Korea handling movement and effects, to illustrate.

“We will hire a little more for sure should there be a future production surge in upcoming years,” they commented. “However, I envision more of a workshop comprising a handful highly skilled individuals that create collective masterpieces.” They emphasized that Sandfall’s vision as developers “focuses on preserving the successful elements that made this achievement possible in the first place.”

Although it's premature for the studio to say specifically about future projects — rest assured, I attempted to learn more — the developers understand their fundamental principles. “The turn-based aspect, forms the foundation of this project,” a developer remarked. “The timing isn't right to specify our next interests, but it's important also to stay true to our studio's essence with [a] strong narrative universe plus innovative play that excites us.”

The lead programmer noted how this game originated from the visionary pursuing his ideal project. It is hoped that's something will be repeated as well for future productions.”