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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a strong Game of the Year candidate, but also a massive financial hit. Developer Sandfall Interactive and publisher Kepler Interactive disclosed that the game surpassed five million copies sold, this is in spite of its status as a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.

Its success came as a surprise to Sandfall. I firmly believed that we'd create a good game garnering some average commercial success,” a senior team member stated.

A technical director remarked this title's review aggregate, rated 93 by critics, came as “maybe the biggest shock to the team versus “our initial expectations and the actual outcome turned out to be. Once it was published the entire team celebrated excitedly. It was really frantic.”

That success has led to the studio creating a free update for the game including novel settings, enemies, plus epic encounters, as announced is coming sometime soon.

Nevertheless, as the title expands, it's unlikely they'll hire extensively. Our team includes a great team under clear creative leadership with a clear direction for this game plus upcoming innovations. We'd like to keep the human scale that led to our success then develop one big game after another,” the executive added.

The studio's scale sparked significant conversation upon the title's release. Certain industry figures, including renowned designers, considered this studio as the “ideal” for a studio. While Sandfall was and is relatively lean next to major studios, a quick look at Expedition 33’s credits indicates dozens of people participated; the French studio hired a team in Korea to work on gameplay animations, for example.

“We will hire a bit more certainly when facing next an upcoming production peak in upcoming years,” they said. “Yet I picture more of a workshop of a few highly skilled individuals that create artistic collaborations.” He noted that their core belief as developers “is more to maintain the strengths that made this achievement possible originally.”

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 their essential identity. “Strategic combat, forms the foundation of what we built,” a developer explained. “The timing isn't right to announce our next interests, yet we must to stay true to our studio's essence through compelling worlds and engaging mechanics that excites us.”

The developer added that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 began with their director developing his passion title. We aspire this approach will be repeated in coming projects.”