🔗 Share this article

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a strong GOTY candidate, but also a huge commercial success. Studio the development team and publisher Kepler Interactive disclosed that this title exceeded 5 million units sold, and that’s in spite of its status as a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

The game's performance came as quite an unexpected turn to Sandfall. “I was strongly believing that we would have a solid title garnering some average market performance,” a senior team member commented.

Another leading developer noted the game's review aggregate, now standing at 93, was the greatest surprise” for everyone relative to what we anticipated and the final result of the field was. Once it was published all staff members were cheering loudly. It was really frantic.”

The positive reception resulted in work on a complimentary expansion for the title with a new environment, adversaries, and boss fights, which they said will release in the next few months.

That said, while the game is growing, it's unlikely they'll hire extensively. Our team includes an excellent group guided by a visionary director possessing strong ideas for the project and future concepts. We'd like to keep the small-team dynamic that made this possible then develop large projects one by one,” the producer said.

Their team size sparked plenty of debate when the game came out. Certain industry figures, including renowned designers, considered the development group as a perfect example for a studio. Despite being relatively lean compared to its AAA counterparts, a quick look at Expedition 33’s credits indicates numerous contributors participated; Sandfall partnered with overseas animators handling movement and effects, for example.

“We will hire a bit more certainly if we have next an upcoming production peak down the line,” they stated. “However, I envision rather a creative atelier of a few highly skilled individuals that can make collective masterpieces.” He noted that the studio's philosophy as a studio “aims to keep the key advantages that made this achievement possible in the first place.”

While it may be premature for the studio to disclose concrete plans what’s next — believe me, I attempted to learn more — the team does know their essential identity. “Strategic combat, is integral to our identity of our creations,” the lead programmer remarked. “It's still premature to announce future passions, however, it's crucial to adhere to the DNA of studio featuring rich storytelling plus innovative play that drives our passion.”

They added that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 started with their director “work[ing] on his dream game. We aspire that's something we will be able to do in coming projects.”