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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a strong Game of the Year candidate, but also a huge financial hit. Developer Sandfall Interactive and publisher their publishing partner disclosed that this title exceeded 5 million units sold, this is in spite of it being a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

Its success was a surprise to Sandfall. I was convinced that we would have an enjoyable experience that would meet some average sales results,” a key executive explained.

Another leading developer remarked that Clair Obscur’s critical score, now standing at 93, came as perhaps “maybe the biggest shock for everyone compared to what we anticipated and the final result turned out to be. Because when it dropped all staff members celebrated excitedly. The energy was electric.”

That success has led to work on new free content for the game with a new environment, foes, along with challenging bosses, as announced would be out within the “upcoming month[s]”.

Nevertheless, despite the game's evolution, it's unlikely they'll hire extensively. “We have an excellent group under clear creative leadership possessing strong ideas for this game and future concepts. We intend to preserve the human scale that led to our success and do maybe large projects one by one,” the executive added.

Their team size drummed up plenty of debate when the game came out. A few well-known creators, including renowned designers, viewed Sandfall’s team as a perfect example for game development. While Sandfall was and is indeed a small team compared to its AAA counterparts, one glance at Expedition 33’s credits indicates many individuals worked on it; Sandfall hired a team in Korea for animation work, as an instance.

“We plan to recruit slightly more certainly should there be a future production surge in upcoming years,” the executive stated. “Yet I picture essentially a craft studio of a few exceptionally gifted creators that create collective masterpieces.” It was stated that the studio's philosophy as a company “aims to keep the key advantages that enabled this success in the first place.”

Although it's premature for the studio to say specifically what’s next — believe me, I tried to get them to — the team does know their essential identity. “The turn-based aspect, forms the foundation of our creations,” the lead programmer remarked. “The timing isn't right to specify what will interest us, however, it's crucial to adhere to our creative core featuring rich storytelling plus innovative play that drives our passion.”

They added that the project began with the visionary developing his passion title. And hopefully that philosophy we will be able to do as well for future productions.”