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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just an impressive GOTY candidate, but also a massive financial hit. Studio the development team along with publisher Kepler Interactive announced that the game exceeded 5 million units sold, and that’s despite it being a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.

Its success came as a shock to the developers. I was convinced that we would have an enjoyable experience garnering moderate sales results,” a senior team member stated.

A technical director remarked that Clair Obscur’s review aggregate, now standing at 93, came as “maybe the biggest shock to the studio compared to “our initial expectations and what the reality of the field was. Once it was published the entire team celebrated excitedly. It felt absolutely wild.”

The positive reception has led to work on a complimentary expansion for players featuring fresh areas, adversaries, and boss fights, which they said is coming in the next few months.

That said, while the game is growing, it's unlikely they'll hire extensively. “We have an excellent group guided by a visionary director with a clear direction for our work and also for new ideas. Our goal is to maintain the human scale that worked for this game and perhaps create major titles sequentially,” the producer added.

Their team size generated significant conversation upon the title's release. A few well-known creators, like Hideo Kojima, looked at the development group as a perfect example for a studio. While Sandfall was and is truly compact compared to its AAA counterparts, checking the game's credits reveals many individuals were involved; the French studio contracted a Korean team handling movement and effects, to illustrate.

“We plan to recruit slightly more definitely if we have a future production surge in the coming years,” the producer stated. “However, I envision rather a creative atelier comprising a handful exceptionally gifted creators that create a work of art together.” They emphasized that Sandfall’s vision as developers “aims to keep the strengths that led to this accomplishment originally.”

Despite being premature for the studio to disclose concrete plans about future projects — believe me, efforts were made — the team does know their essential identity. “Strategic combat, I think it's in the DNA of what we built,” they explained. “It's a bit too early to announce our next interests, however, it's crucial to adhere to our studio's essence featuring rich storytelling and engaging mechanics that excites us.”

They mentioned that the project began with the creative director developing his passion title. And hopefully this approach will be repeated in coming projects.”