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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a top GOTY candidate, it’s also a huge commercial success. Studio Sandfall Interactive and publisher their publishing partner revealed that this title topped 5 million units in sales, this is despite its status as a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.

The game's performance came as an unexpected turn to the developers. I was convinced that we would have an enjoyable experience achieving some average commercial success,” a key executive commented.

Another leading developer pointed out the game's Metacritic rating, rated 93 by critics, came as “maybe the biggest shock to the team relative to what we anticipated and the actual outcome turned out to be. Once it was published the entire team was screaming and jumping. It felt absolutely wild.”

The positive reception resulted in Sandfall developing new free content for the title featuring fresh areas, foes, along with challenging bosses, as announced would be out within the “upcoming month[s]”.

That said, while the game is growing, fans shouldn't anticipate the studio to grow. We've built a great team under clear creative leadership possessing strong ideas for our work and future concepts. We intend to preserve the small-team dynamic that made this possible and perhaps create large projects one by one,” they added.

The studio's scale drummed up significant conversation following launch. Some developers, like Hideo Kojima, considered the development group as the model for a studio. Despite being indeed a small team versus large developers, one glance at Expedition 33’s credits shows that many individuals participated; the French studio contracted a Korean team for animation work, as an instance.

“We plan to recruit slightly more definitely should there be a future production surge down the line,” the executive commented. “But I would see essentially a craft studio of a few highly skilled individuals that create a work of art together.” They emphasized that the studio's philosophy as a company “aims to keep the strengths that made this achievement possible from the start.”

While it may be too early for Sandfall to say specifically about future projects — and trust me, I tried to get them to — they are certain what’s at its core. “Strategic combat, is integral to our identity of our creations,” the lead programmer remarked. “It's still premature to specify future passions, but it's important also to adhere to the DNA of studio featuring rich storytelling plus innovative play that inspires the team.”

The lead programmer added how this game started with their director pursuing his ideal project. And hopefully this approach will be repeated with upcoming games.”