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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a strong Game of the Year contender, but also an enormous commercial success. Studio Sandfall Interactive and publisher Kepler Interactive announced that this title topped 5 million units sold, this is even with it being a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

The game's performance came as quite a shock to Sandfall. I firmly believed that we'd create a solid title achieving reasonable commercial success,” a key executive commented.

A technical director pointed out the game's review aggregate, rated 93 by critics, came as perhaps “maybe the biggest shock to the studio compared to “our initial expectations and the actual outcome turned out to be. Because when it dropped the entire team celebrated excitedly. It felt absolutely wild.”

This triumph has led to work on a free update for the title featuring fresh areas, adversaries, and boss fights, which they said would be out within the “upcoming month[s]”.

Nevertheless, as the title expands, it's unlikely the studio to grow. “We have a talented crew under clear creative leadership with a clear direction for the project and also for new ideas. We intend to preserve the small-team dynamic that made this possible then develop major titles sequentially,” the producer added.

Their team size sparked plenty of debate following launch. Certain industry figures, such as the famed director, considered the development group as a perfect example for creative teams. Despite being truly compact compared to its AAA counterparts, one glance at the title's staff list shows that many individuals participated; Sandfall hired a team in Korea for animation work, to illustrate.

“We will hire slightly more certainly if we have a future production surge in upcoming years,” the executive commented. “However, I envision more of a workshop comprising a handful really talented people that create a work of art together.” They emphasized that their core belief as a studio “aims to keep the successful elements that enabled this success originally.”

Despite being too early for Sandfall to say specifically regarding upcoming titles — believe me, I tried to get them to — the developers understand their fundamental principles. “Turn-based gameplay, is integral to our identity of what we built,” they said. “It's still premature to announce what will interest us, however, it's crucial to remain faithful to our creative core through compelling worlds and the interesting gameplay that inspires the team.”

The developer noted how this game originated from the visionary “work[ing] on his dream game. And hopefully this approach we will be able to do with upcoming games.”