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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a top Game of the Year candidate, it’s also a massive financial hit. Studio Sandfall Interactive and publisher their publishing partner revealed that this title surpassed 5 million units in sales, this is in spite of it being a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

The game's performance came as a shock to Sandfall. I was convinced that we'd create a good game garnering moderate commercial success,” the COO and producer commented.

Another leading developer noted that Clair Obscur’s Metacritic rating, now standing at 93, was the most surprising moment for everyone relative to “our initial expectations and what the reality of the field was. Once it was published the entire team were cheering loudly. It was really frantic.”

That success has led to the studio creating a complimentary expansion for the game featuring fresh areas, enemies, along with challenging bosses, as announced is coming within the “upcoming month[s]”.

However, despite the game's evolution, it's unlikely the team will expand. Our team includes a great team under clear creative leadership possessing strong ideas for this game and also for new ideas. We'd like to keep the small-team dynamic that worked for this game and perhaps create large projects one by one,” the executive added.

The size of Sandfall sparked significant conversation following launch. Some developers, including renowned designers, viewed the development group as the “ideal” for creative teams. While Sandfall was and is indeed a small team next to major studios, a quick look at the title's staff list reveals dozens of people worked on it; Sandfall hired a team in Korea for animation work, to illustrate.

“We plan to recruit a little more definitely should there be a future production surge down the line,” the producer commented. “But I would see rather a creative atelier of a few exceptionally gifted creators that create artistic collaborations.” He noted that Sandfall’s vision as a company “aims to keep the key advantages that led to this accomplishment originally.”

Despite being too early for Sandfall to say specifically regarding upcoming titles — rest assured, efforts were made — the team does know their essential identity. “Strategic combat, is integral to our identity of our creations,” the lead programmer said. “It's a bit too early to announce future passions, however, it's crucial to adhere to our studio's essence with [a] strong narrative universe plus innovative play that excites us.”

They noted that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 started with the visionary pursuing his ideal project. And hopefully that philosophy we will be able to do with upcoming games.”