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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just an impressive GOTY candidate, but also a massive commercial success. Developer Sandfall Interactive and publisher their publishing partner revealed that the game topped 5 million units in sales, and that’s in spite of its status as a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.

The game's performance came as quite an unexpected turn for the team. “I was strongly believing that we would have a good game that would meet moderate market performance,” a key executive commented.

Another leading developer noted the game's review aggregate, which currently sits at 93, was the most surprising moment to the studio relative to what we anticipated and what the reality turned out to be. Once it was published everybody in the studio were cheering loudly. It felt absolutely wild.”

That success prompted Sandfall developing a complimentary expansion for players featuring fresh areas, enemies, and boss fights, reportedly will release sometime soon.

That said, as the title expands, fans shouldn't anticipate the team will expand. “We have a talented crew with a strong creative director who has a great vision for this game and future concepts. Our goal is to maintain the human scale that led to our success then develop one big game after another,” the executive noted.

The size of Sandfall sparked significant conversation when the game came out. A few well-known creators, like Hideo Kojima, looked at this studio as the model for game development. While Sandfall was and is indeed a small team compared to its AAA counterparts, checking the title's staff list shows that dozens of people were involved; the French studio partnered with overseas animators handling movement and effects, as an instance.

“We will hire a bit more for sure when facing an increase in development in upcoming years,” they commented. “But I would see more of a workshop with a small number of highly skilled individuals that can make a work of art together.” They emphasized that Sandfall’s vision as a studio “is more to maintain the successful elements that enabled this success originally.”

Despite being not the right time to say specifically regarding upcoming titles — believe me, I tried to get them to — they are certain their fundamental principles. “Turn-based gameplay, I think it's in the DNA of what we built,” a developer explained. “It's a bit too early to be able to tell our next interests, however, it's crucial to remain faithful to our studio's essence featuring rich storytelling and the interesting gameplay that drives our passion.”

They added that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 began with their director pursuing his ideal project. We aspire that philosophy will be repeated with upcoming games.”