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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only an impressive Game of the Year candidate, it’s also a massive sales triumph. Developer Sandfall Interactive along with publisher their publishing partner disclosed that this title exceeded 5 million units sold, this is despite its status as a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.

The game's performance came as a shock to the developers. I firmly believed that we would have a solid title that would meet reasonable commercial success,” a key executive explained.

Another leading developer noted the game's Metacritic rating, which currently sits at 93, was the most surprising moment to the studio versus “our initial expectations and what the reality proved to be. When the score released everybody in the studio were cheering loudly. The energy was electric.”

That success resulted in the studio creating new free content for the game with a new environment, foes, along with challenging bosses, which they said is coming within the “upcoming month[s]”.

However, while the game is growing, it's unlikely they'll hire extensively. We've built a talented crew guided by a visionary director possessing strong ideas for this game and future concepts. Our goal is to maintain the close-knit size that worked for this game then develop large projects one by one,” the executive noted.

Their team size drummed up significant conversation when the game came out. A few well-known creators, like Hideo Kojima, looked at Sandfall’s team as the model for game development. While Sandfall was and is relatively lean versus large developers, checking the game's credits indicates many individuals participated; Sandfall hired a team in Korea to work on gameplay animations, for example.

“We will hire a little more for sure when facing next an upcoming production peak in the coming years,” the producer commented. “However, I envision essentially a craft studio comprising a handful highly skilled individuals that create a work of art together.” It was stated that Sandfall’s vision as a studio “focuses on preserving the key advantages that led to this accomplishment in the first place.”

Despite being not the right time to reveal exact details regarding upcoming titles — rest assured, I attempted to learn more — the team does know their fundamental principles. “Strategic combat, forms the foundation of what we built,” they explained. “The timing isn't right to specify our next interests, yet we must to stay true to our creative core featuring rich storytelling and engaging mechanics that excites us.”

The lead programmer noted that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 started with their director pursuing his ideal project. We aspire that's something will be repeated with upcoming games.”