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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only an impressive GOTY contender, it’s also an enormous financial hit. Developer the development team along with publisher their publishing partner revealed that this title exceeded five million copies in sales, this is despite it being a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

Its success came as a shock to Sandfall. “I was strongly believing that we would have a solid title that would meet reasonable market performance,” a senior team member stated.

A technical director pointed out this title's critical score, which currently sits at 93, came as perhaps the greatest surprise” for everyone relative to what we anticipated and what the reality turned out to be. Because when it dropped everybody in the studio celebrated excitedly. It felt absolutely wild.”

That success has led to the studio creating new free content for players including novel settings, foes, and boss fights, reportedly is coming sometime soon.

Nevertheless, despite the game's evolution, don’t expect the team will expand. “We have a talented crew guided by a visionary director who has a great vision for the project and future concepts. We'd like to keep the close-knit size that led to our success and perhaps create large projects one by one,” the executive said.

Their team size sparked a storm of discussion upon the title's release. A few well-known creators, including renowned designers, considered Sandfall’s team as the model for creative teams. While Sandfall was and is indeed a small team compared to its AAA counterparts, checking the game's credits shows that numerous contributors participated; Sandfall hired a team in Korea handling movement and effects, as an instance.

“Some hiring will occur a bit more for sure if we have an increase in development down the line,” the producer commented. “But I would see more of a workshop with a small number of highly skilled individuals that can make artistic collaborations.” He noted that Sandfall’s vision as developers “is more to maintain the key advantages that made this achievement possible in the first place.”

While it may be premature for the studio to reveal exact details what’s next — believe me, I tried to get them to — the developers understand what’s at its core. “Turn-based gameplay, I think it's in the DNA of our creations,” they explained. “The timing isn't right to announce what will interest us, however, it's crucial to remain faithful to the DNA of studio through compelling worlds plus innovative play that inspires the team.”

The lead programmer noted how this game started with the creative director pursuing his ideal project. We aspire that philosophy we can continue in coming projects.”