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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a top Game of the Year candidate, but also a massive sales triumph. Studio Sandfall Interactive and publisher Kepler Interactive revealed that this title exceeded five million copies in sales, this is despite its status as a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.

This achievement came as quite a surprise for the team. I firmly believed that we would have a good game achieving moderate commercial success,” a senior team member commented.

Another leading developer pointed out that Clair Obscur’s review aggregate, now standing at 93, was the greatest surprise” for everyone compared to “our initial expectations and the actual outcome proved to be. Once it was published the entire team were cheering loudly. The energy was electric.”

The positive reception prompted the studio creating a complimentary expansion for the title with a new environment, adversaries, plus epic encounters, reportedly would be out in the next few months.

Nevertheless, as the title expands, it's unlikely the studio to grow. We've built a great team guided by a visionary director possessing strong ideas for our work and also for new ideas. Our goal is to maintain the close-knit size that led to our success and do maybe one big game after another,” the producer noted.

The size of Sandfall drummed up plenty of debate when the game came out. Some developers, including renowned designers, considered Sandfall’s team as the model for a studio. Although the team is and was indeed a small team next to major studios, checking the game's credits shows that many individuals were involved; Sandfall contracted a Korean team for animation work, to illustrate.

“We will hire a little more for sure should there be a future production surge in the coming years,” the producer said. “However, I envision essentially a craft studio of a few highly skilled individuals that create a work of art together.” It was stated that their core belief as developers “aims to keep the successful elements that led to this accomplishment from the start.”

Although it's premature for the studio to reveal exact details regarding upcoming titles — and trust me, I attempted to learn more — the team does know their essential identity. “Turn-based gameplay, I think it's in the DNA of what we built,” a developer explained. “It's a bit too early to be able to tell what will interest us, but it's important also to stay true to our studio's essence with [a] strong narrative universe plus innovative play that inspires the team.”

The lead programmer added that the project began with their director pursuing his ideal project. And hopefully this approach will be repeated as well for future productions.”