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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a top Game of the Year contender, but also an enormous financial hit. Developer the development team and publisher their publishing partner disclosed that this title exceeded 5 million units sold, this is even with its status as a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.

The game's performance was an unexpected turn to Sandfall. “I was strongly believing that we would have a solid title garnering some average commercial success,” a senior team member explained.

Another leading developer noted the game's Metacritic rating, rated 93 by critics, was the most surprising moment for everyone relative to what we anticipated and the actual outcome proved to be. When the score released everybody in the studio were cheering loudly. It felt absolutely wild.”

The positive reception resulted in work on a free update for the title including novel settings, foes, along with challenging bosses, reportedly would be out in the next few months.

However, as the title expands, don’t expect the team will expand. “We have a great team guided by a visionary director with a clear direction for this game plus upcoming innovations. We intend to preserve the small-team dynamic that made this possible and do maybe major titles sequentially,” the producer noted.

The size of Sandfall drummed up significant conversation when the game came out. A few well-known creators, including renowned designers, considered Sandfall’s team as the “ideal” for a studio. Despite being indeed a small team versus large developers, checking the game's credits shows that dozens of people were involved; the French studio partnered with overseas animators for animation work, as an instance.

“We plan to recruit a bit more for sure should there be next an upcoming production peak in upcoming years,” the producer said. “Yet I picture more of a workshop of a few really talented people that create collective masterpieces.” It was stated that the studio's philosophy as a company “focuses on preserving the successful elements that enabled this success originally.”

Despite being too early for Sandfall to say specifically about future projects — and trust me, efforts were made — the team does know their fundamental principles. “Turn-based gameplay, is integral to our identity of this project,” a developer said. “It's still premature to be able to tell what will interest us, but it's important also to remain faithful to our creative core featuring rich storytelling plus innovative play that inspires the team.”

The lead programmer noted that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 began with their director developing his passion title. We aspire this approach we will be able to do with upcoming games.”