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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a top GOTY contender, but also a massive financial hit. Studio Sandfall Interactive and publisher Kepler Interactive revealed that this title exceeded five million copies in sales, and that’s even with its status as a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.

Its success came as a shock for the team. “I was strongly believing that we would have an enjoyable experience achieving reasonable market performance,” a senior team member stated.

The CTO and lead programmer pointed out the game's critical score, which currently sits at 93, was “maybe the biggest shock for everyone compared to “our initial expectations and what the reality turned out to be. When the score released the entire team were cheering loudly. It felt absolutely wild.”

This triumph prompted Sandfall developing new free content for the game featuring fresh areas, foes, plus epic encounters, as announced would be out in the next few months.

However, as the title expands, fans shouldn't anticipate the studio to grow. “We have a great team guided by a visionary director with a clear direction for the project and future concepts. We intend to preserve the small-team dynamic that worked for this game and do maybe large projects one by one,” they said.

The studio's scale drummed up significant conversation upon the title's release. Some developers, including renowned designers, looked at the development group as the “ideal” for game development. While Sandfall was and is relatively lean versus large developers, a quick look at the game's credits reveals many individuals participated; the French studio contracted a Korean team to work on gameplay animations, for example.

“We plan to recruit slightly more for sure should there be an increase in development in the coming years,” the executive commented. “But I would see rather a creative atelier of a few really talented people capable of producing artistic collaborations.” He noted that Sandfall’s vision as developers “aims to keep the successful elements that enabled this success in the first place.”

Despite being not the right time to disclose concrete plans what’s next — believe me, I attempted to learn more — the team does know their fundamental principles. “Strategic combat, forms the foundation of what we built,” a developer remarked. “It's still premature to be able to tell what will interest us, but it's important also to adhere to the DNA of studio featuring rich storytelling and engaging mechanics that inspires the team.”

The lead programmer noted how this game started with their director “work[ing] on his dream game. And hopefully this approach will be repeated as well for future productions.”