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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a strong Game of the Year candidate, it’s also an enormous financial hit. Studio the development team along with publisher their publishing partner revealed that the game exceeded five million copies sold, this is in spite of it being a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.

The game's performance was a surprise for the team. “I was strongly believing that we would have a good game that would meet reasonable commercial success,” a senior team member explained.

Another leading developer noted that Clair Obscur’s review aggregate, rated 93 by critics, came as “maybe the biggest shock to the team compared to “our initial expectations and what the reality turned out to be. Once it was published the entire team was screaming and jumping. It felt absolutely wild.”

The positive reception prompted work on a complimentary expansion for the game featuring fresh areas, adversaries, and boss fights, reportedly will release sometime soon.

That said, while the game is growing, fans shouldn't anticipate they'll hire extensively. Our team includes an excellent group with a strong creative director possessing strong ideas for the project and also for new ideas. Our goal is to maintain the human scale that made this possible then develop large projects one by one,” the executive said.

Their team size drummed up plenty of debate upon the title's release. Some developers, including renowned designers, viewed the development group as a perfect example for a studio. Although the team is and was indeed a small team versus large developers, a quick look at the title's staff list indicates numerous contributors participated; Sandfall contracted a Korean team for animation work, to illustrate.

“We plan to recruit slightly more definitely if we have next an upcoming production peak in upcoming years,” the producer commented. “But I would see rather a creative atelier with a small number of exceptionally gifted creators that can make collective masterpieces.” He noted that the studio's philosophy as developers “focuses on preserving the successful elements that enabled this success in the first place.”

Although it's too early for Sandfall to disclose concrete plans about future projects — and trust me, I attempted to learn more — they are certain what’s at its core. “The turn-based aspect, I think it's in the DNA of this project,” a developer remarked. “It's a bit too early to be able to tell our next interests, however, it's crucial to adhere to our creative core featuring rich storytelling plus innovative play that excites us.”

They noted that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 began with the creative director pursuing his ideal project. It is hoped this approach we will be able to do in coming projects.”