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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a top GOTY contender, but also a massive commercial success. Developer Sandfall Interactive along with publisher their publishing partner revealed that the game surpassed 5 million units in sales, and that’s in spite of its status as a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.

Its success was a shock to Sandfall. I firmly believed that we'd create a solid title garnering moderate commercial success,” a key executive stated.

Another leading developer noted this title's review aggregate, which currently sits at 93, was the most surprising moment for everyone compared to “our initial expectations and what the reality turned out to be. When the score released all staff members were cheering loudly. It was really frantic.”

The positive reception resulted in Sandfall developing new free content for players with a new environment, enemies, plus epic encounters, as announced will release in the next few months.

That said, despite the game's evolution, it's unlikely the studio to grow. Our team includes a great team under clear creative leadership possessing strong ideas for this game plus upcoming innovations. We intend to preserve the human scale that made this possible and do maybe large projects one by one,” they noted.

The studio's scale generated a storm of discussion following launch. Certain industry figures, like Hideo Kojima, viewed Sandfall’s team as the model for creative teams. Although the team is and was truly compact compared to its AAA counterparts, one glance at Expedition 33’s credits indicates dozens of people worked on it; Sandfall hired a team in Korea handling movement and effects, for example.

“Some hiring will occur a bit more certainly when facing an increase in development in upcoming years,” they commented. “But I would see more of a workshop with a small number of exceptionally gifted creators capable of producing collective masterpieces.” It was stated that the studio's philosophy as a studio “aims to keep the successful elements that led to this accomplishment in the first place.”

While it may be not the right time to disclose concrete plans about future projects — and trust 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 remarked. “It's a bit too early to specify what will interest us, but it's important also to stay true to our creative core featuring rich storytelling and the interesting gameplay that drives our passion.”

The lead programmer noted that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 originated from their director “work[ing] on his dream game. It is hoped that's something we can continue as well for future productions.”