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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a strong Game of the Year candidate, it’s also a massive commercial success. Developer the development team and publisher Kepler Interactive disclosed that the game surpassed five million copies in sales, and that’s despite it being a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

The game's performance came as quite an unexpected turn to Sandfall. I was convinced that we'd create a good game that would meet some average market performance,” the COO and producer explained.

The CTO and lead programmer noted this title's critical score, now standing at 93, was the most surprising moment for everyone compared to our early predictions and the actual outcome turned out to be. When the score released all staff members were cheering loudly. It felt absolutely wild.”

This triumph prompted work on new free content for the title including novel settings, adversaries, and boss fights, reportedly is coming within the “upcoming month[s]”.

However, as the title expands, it's unlikely the team will expand. Our team includes an excellent group under clear creative leadership possessing strong ideas for this game and also for new ideas. We intend to preserve the small-team dynamic that worked for this game then develop major titles sequentially,” the executive added.

The studio's scale drummed up plenty of debate when the game came out. A few well-known creators, like Hideo Kojima, viewed this studio as the “ideal” for creative teams. Despite being relatively lean versus large developers, one glance at Expedition 33’s credits shows that numerous contributors participated; Sandfall hired a team in Korea for animation work, to illustrate.

“We will hire a little more certainly when facing next an upcoming production peak in the coming years,” they stated. “But I would see rather a creative atelier of a few highly skilled individuals capable of producing collective masterpieces.” He noted that Sandfall’s vision as developers “focuses on preserving the successful elements that enabled this success in the first place.”

Although it's premature for the studio to disclose concrete plans regarding upcoming titles — believe me, I tried to get them to — the developers understand their essential identity. “Turn-based gameplay, is integral to our identity of what we built,” a developer remarked. “It's a bit too early to announce what will interest us, yet we must to stay true to our studio's essence with [a] strong narrative universe and engaging mechanics that excites us.”

They noted that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 began with their director “work[ing] on his dream game. It is hoped that's something we will be able to do as well for future productions.”