🔗 Share this article

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only an impressive Game of the Year contender, but also an enormous sales triumph. Studio the development team and publisher their publishing partner revealed that the game exceeded 5 million units sold, and that’s despite it being a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

This achievement came as an unexpected turn for the team. I was convinced that we would have an enjoyable experience that would meet moderate sales results,” a key executive explained.

A technical director noted the game's critical score, rated 93 by critics, came as perhaps the greatest surprise” to the studio relative to “our initial expectations and the final result of the field was. Because when it dropped the entire team were cheering loudly. The energy was electric.”

That success has led to Sandfall developing a free update for players featuring fresh areas, foes, along with challenging bosses, as announced is coming in the next few months.

Nevertheless, while the game is growing, it's unlikely they'll hire extensively. Our team includes a talented crew under clear creative leadership possessing strong ideas for the project and future concepts. We intend to preserve the small-team dynamic that made this possible and perhaps create major titles sequentially,” the executive said.

The size of Sandfall drummed up significant conversation following launch. Certain industry figures, including renowned designers, considered the development group as the model for a studio. Despite being truly compact next to major studios, one glance at the game's credits indicates many individuals worked on it; the French studio hired a team in Korea to work on gameplay animations, to illustrate.

“We plan to recruit slightly more definitely should there be next an upcoming production peak down the line,” the producer commented. “However, I envision more of a workshop of a few really talented people that create collective masterpieces.” They emphasized that Sandfall’s vision as a company “is more to maintain the key advantages that led to this accomplishment from the start.”

Although it's too early for Sandfall to disclose concrete plans what’s next — rest assured, efforts were made — the developers understand their fundamental principles. “Turn-based gameplay, forms the foundation of this project,” the lead programmer said. “The timing isn't right to announce what will interest us, however, it's crucial to adhere to our creative core with [a] strong narrative universe and engaging mechanics that excites us.”

The developer added that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 originated from the creative director pursuing his ideal project. It is hoped that philosophy will be repeated as well for future productions.”