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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a strong Game of the Year contender, it’s also a huge commercial success. Developer the development team and publisher Kepler Interactive announced that this title surpassed 5 million units in sales, this is despite its status as a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

This achievement came as a shock for the team. I firmly believed that we would have a solid title garnering moderate sales results,” a key executive stated.

Another leading developer noted that Clair Obscur’s review aggregate, which currently sits at 93, came as perhaps the greatest surprise” for everyone versus “our initial expectations and the actual outcome proved to be. When the score released all staff members was screaming and jumping. The energy was electric.”

That success has led to Sandfall developing a free update for the title featuring fresh areas, enemies, and boss fights, which they said will release sometime soon.

Nevertheless, as the title expands, don’t expect the studio to grow. “We have a great team under clear creative leadership possessing strong ideas for the project and future concepts. We intend to preserve the human scale that worked for this game and do maybe major titles sequentially,” the executive added.

Their team size drummed up plenty of debate upon the title's release. Certain industry figures, such as the famed director, considered the development group as a perfect example for game development. Although the team is and was relatively lean compared to its AAA counterparts, checking Expedition 33’s credits indicates dozens of people participated; the French studio hired a team in Korea handling movement and effects, as an instance.

“We plan to recruit slightly more definitely when facing an increase in development in upcoming years,” the executive commented. “Yet I picture essentially a craft studio of a few exceptionally gifted creators that can make artistic collaborations.” He noted that the studio's philosophy as a studio “is more to maintain the strengths that enabled this success in the first place.”

Although it's not the right time to say specifically about future projects — believe me, I attempted to learn more — the developers understand their fundamental principles. “Turn-based gameplay, is integral to our identity of this project,” a developer said. “It's still premature to announce future passions, but it's important also to remain faithful to the DNA of studio through compelling worlds plus innovative play that excites us.”

They added that the project originated from their director developing his passion title. We aspire that philosophy will be repeated as well for future productions.”