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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a strong GOTY contender, it’s also a massive sales triumph. Studio Sandfall Interactive along with publisher Kepler Interactive revealed that this title exceeded five million copies sold, this is even with its status as a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

This achievement came as a surprise to the developers. “I was strongly believing that we would have a good game achieving reasonable commercial success,” a key executive commented.

The CTO and lead programmer remarked the game's critical score, now standing at 93, came as perhaps the greatest surprise” for everyone versus our early predictions and the final result proved to be. Because when it dropped all staff members was screaming and jumping. It felt absolutely wild.”

This triumph has led to the studio creating new free content for the game including novel settings, enemies, plus epic encounters, reportedly would be out in the next few months.

Nevertheless, while the game is growing, don’t expect the team will expand. “We have an excellent group with a strong creative director with a clear direction for our work plus upcoming innovations. We intend to preserve the close-knit size that led to our success and perhaps create one big game after another,” the producer added.

The studio's scale sparked a storm of discussion following launch. A few well-known creators, such as the famed director, considered the development group as the model for game development. Despite being indeed a small team compared to its AAA counterparts, checking the game's credits indicates many individuals were involved; the French studio partnered with overseas animators handling movement and effects, as an instance.

“Some hiring will occur a bit more for sure when facing an increase in development down the line,” the executive said. “But I would see essentially a craft studio with a small number of highly skilled individuals that create collective masterpieces.” It was stated that Sandfall’s vision as a studio “aims to keep the key advantages that made this achievement possible originally.”

While it may be premature for the studio to say specifically what’s next — believe me, I attempted to learn more — they are certain their fundamental principles. “The turn-based aspect, is integral to our identity of our creations,” a developer said. “It's a bit too early to be able to tell what will interest us, yet we must to remain faithful to the DNA of studio through compelling worlds plus innovative play that drives our passion.”

The developer added that the project started with their director “work[ing] on his dream game. And hopefully this approach we will be able to do with upcoming games.”