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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a strong Game of the Year contender, but also a huge sales triumph. Developer the development team and publisher Kepler Interactive revealed that this title topped 5 million units in sales, this is despite its status as a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.

Its success came as an unexpected turn for the team. I was convinced that we'd create a solid title that would meet moderate commercial success,” a key executive commented.

The CTO and lead programmer pointed out this title's review aggregate, rated 93 by critics, came as perhaps the greatest surprise” for everyone versus what we anticipated and the final result proved to be. When the score released the entire team were cheering loudly. The energy was electric.”

That success prompted Sandfall developing a complimentary expansion for the game including novel settings, enemies, and boss fights, as announced would be out within the “upcoming month[s]”.

Nevertheless, while the game is growing, fans shouldn't anticipate the team will expand. “We have a great team under clear creative leadership who has a great vision for our work and future concepts. Our goal is to maintain the human scale that made this possible and do maybe large projects one by one,” the producer said.

The size of Sandfall sparked plenty of debate when the game came out. Certain industry figures, like Hideo Kojima, considered Sandfall’s team as the “ideal” for a studio. Despite being indeed a small team versus large developers, checking Expedition 33’s credits shows that many individuals were involved; the French studio contracted a Korean team handling movement and effects, for example.

“We plan to recruit a bit more certainly should there be an increase in development in upcoming years,” they stated. “However, I envision more of a workshop comprising a handful exceptionally gifted creators that can make artistic collaborations.” It was stated that Sandfall’s vision as developers “aims to keep the strengths that made this achievement possible originally.”

Although it's not the right time to say specifically regarding upcoming titles — believe me, efforts were made — they are certain what’s at its core. “Strategic combat, I think it's in the DNA of our creations,” they explained. “It's still premature to announce future passions, but it's important also to adhere to our studio's essence with [a] strong narrative universe and engaging mechanics that inspires the team.”

The developer mentioned that the project originated from the creative director developing his passion title. We aspire this approach will be repeated as well for future productions.”