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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a top GOTY candidate, but also a massive commercial success. Studio Sandfall Interactive along with publisher their publishing partner announced that this title topped 5 million units sold, this is even with it being a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

This achievement was a surprise to Sandfall. I was convinced that we would have a solid title that would meet reasonable commercial success,” a key executive explained.

The CTO and lead programmer pointed out that Clair Obscur’s review aggregate, which currently sits at 93, was “maybe the biggest shock to the team relative to what we anticipated and what the reality of the field was. Because when it dropped all staff members were cheering loudly. The energy was electric.”

That success resulted in the studio creating a free update for the title including novel settings, adversaries, and boss fights, which they said will release sometime soon.

Nevertheless, as the title expands, it's unlikely the studio to grow. “We have an excellent group with a strong creative director who has a great vision for our work plus upcoming innovations. Our goal is to maintain the close-knit size that worked for this game and do maybe large projects one by one,” they said.

Their team size generated significant conversation when the game came out. Certain industry figures, like Hideo Kojima, considered this studio as the “ideal” for a studio. Although the team is and was indeed a small team versus large developers, checking the game's credits reveals many individuals participated; Sandfall partnered with overseas animators for animation work, for example.

“We plan to recruit a little more definitely when facing next an upcoming production peak in the coming years,” the executive commented. “However, I envision rather a creative atelier with a small number of really talented people that can make collective masterpieces.” They emphasized that their core belief as a studio “focuses on preserving the strengths that enabled this success in the first place.”

Although it's too early for Sandfall to say specifically about future projects — rest assured, I attempted to learn more — the developers understand what’s at its core. “Turn-based gameplay, forms the foundation of our creations,” they explained. “The timing isn't right to be able to tell our next interests, yet we must to remain faithful to our studio's essence with [a] strong narrative universe and engaging mechanics that inspires the team.”

The developer noted how this game started with their director “work[ing] on his dream game. We aspire that's something will be repeated with upcoming games.”