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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only an impressive Game of the Year contender, it’s also a massive financial hit. Developer Sandfall Interactive and publisher their publishing partner disclosed that the game surpassed 5 million units in sales, and that’s despite it being a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.

This achievement came as a surprise to the developers. I firmly believed that we'd create a good game that would meet reasonable sales results,” a key executive stated.

The CTO and lead programmer remarked the game's critical score, rated 93 by critics, came as the most surprising moment to the team versus what we anticipated and the actual outcome of the field was. When the score released all staff members were cheering loudly. It felt absolutely wild.”

That success prompted work on a free update for the game featuring fresh areas, enemies, plus epic encounters, reportedly would be out within the “upcoming month[s]”.

Nevertheless, despite the game's evolution, it's unlikely the studio to grow. We've built an excellent group under clear creative leadership possessing strong ideas for the project and future concepts. We intend to preserve the small-team dynamic that made this possible and do maybe one big game after another,” the producer added.

Their team size generated a storm of discussion following launch. A few well-known creators, such as the famed director, considered Sandfall’s team as the “ideal” for creative teams. Despite being truly compact versus large developers, checking the game's credits shows that numerous contributors worked on it; the French studio partnered with overseas animators handling movement and effects, as an instance.

“We plan to recruit a little more for sure when facing next an upcoming production peak down the line,” the producer stated. “But I would see rather a creative atelier of a few exceptionally gifted creators that create a work of art together.” He noted that their core belief as a studio “focuses on preserving the key advantages that led to this accomplishment originally.”

Despite being not the right time to reveal exact details regarding upcoming titles — and trust me, I tried to get them to — the developers understand their essential identity. “The turn-based aspect, forms the foundation of our creations,” they explained. “The timing isn't right to announce what will interest us, but it's important also to remain faithful to our creative core through compelling worlds plus innovative play that drives our passion.”

They added how this game began with their director “work[ing] on his dream game. It is hoped that's something will be repeated in coming projects.”