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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only an impressive GOTY candidate, but also an enormous commercial success. Studio the development team and publisher their publishing partner disclosed that this title surpassed 5 million units sold, this is in spite of it being a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

This achievement was a shock to Sandfall. I firmly believed that we would have a solid title garnering some average commercial success,” a key executive commented.

The CTO and lead programmer noted that Clair Obscur’s critical score, rated 93 by critics, came as perhaps “maybe the biggest shock to the studio versus our early predictions and what the reality turned out to be. Because when it dropped everybody in the studio were cheering loudly. It was really frantic.”

This triumph has led to the studio creating new free content for players with a new environment, adversaries, and boss fights, as announced is coming in the next few months.

Nevertheless, despite the game's evolution, it's unlikely the team will expand. We've built a talented crew under clear creative leadership with a clear direction for the project plus upcoming innovations. Our goal is to maintain the small-team dynamic that worked for this game then develop one big game after another,” they added.

Their team size drummed up plenty of debate following launch. Some developers, including renowned designers, viewed this studio as a perfect example for game development. Despite being truly compact next to major studios, one glance at the title's staff list shows that dozens of people participated; the French studio hired a team in Korea to work on gameplay animations, for example.

“Some hiring will occur a bit more definitely should there be a future production surge in upcoming years,” the producer said. “Yet I picture rather a creative atelier comprising a handful exceptionally gifted creators that create collective masterpieces.” They emphasized that their core belief as developers “focuses on preserving the successful elements that enabled this success in the first place.”

Although it's premature for the studio to say specifically about future projects — and trust me, I tried to get them to — they are certain what’s at its core. “The turn-based aspect, I think it's in the DNA of what we built,” they explained. “It's a bit too early to announce our next interests, however, it's crucial to remain faithful to our creative core featuring rich storytelling plus innovative play that drives our passion.”

The lead programmer added that the project began with the visionary developing his passion title. And hopefully that's something we can continue in coming projects.”