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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just an impressive GOTY contender, it’s also a massive commercial success. Developer Sandfall Interactive along with publisher Kepler Interactive disclosed that the game exceeded five million copies sold, this is even with it being a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

This achievement was an unexpected turn to Sandfall. I firmly believed that we'd create a solid title that would meet moderate sales results,” a key executive commented.

The CTO and lead programmer remarked that Clair Obscur’s review aggregate, which currently sits at 93, was “maybe the biggest shock for everyone versus what we anticipated and the final result proved to be. Because when it dropped all staff members were cheering loudly. The energy was electric.”

That success resulted in the studio creating new free content for the title with a new environment, foes, plus epic encounters, reportedly would be out sometime soon.

That said, while the game is growing, don’t expect they'll hire extensively. We've built an excellent group guided by a visionary director possessing strong ideas for this game and also for new ideas. We'd like to keep the close-knit size that led to our success then develop one big game after another,” the executive noted.

The studio's scale generated a storm of discussion upon the title's release. A few well-known creators, including renowned designers, considered Sandfall’s team as the “ideal” for a studio. While Sandfall was and is indeed a small team next to major studios, one glance at the title's staff list indicates dozens of people worked on it; Sandfall partnered with overseas animators to work on gameplay animations, as an instance.

“We plan to recruit a little more definitely when facing a future production surge down the line,” the producer stated. “But I would see essentially a craft studio of a few exceptionally gifted creators that create a work of art together.” He noted that their core belief as developers “is more to maintain the successful elements that made this achievement possible from the start.”

Although it's too early for Sandfall to reveal exact details what’s next — believe me, I tried to get them to — the developers understand their essential identity. “The turn-based aspect, I think it's in the DNA of what we built,” a developer remarked. “It's a bit too early to announce future passions, yet we must to remain faithful to our studio's essence through compelling worlds and the interesting gameplay that excites us.”

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