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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just an impressive GOTY contender, but also a massive commercial success. Studio Sandfall Interactive and publisher Kepler Interactive revealed that this title topped five million copies sold, this is even with it being a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

The game's performance came as quite a shock for the team. I firmly believed that we would have an enjoyable experience that would meet some average market performance,” a senior team member commented.

The CTO and lead programmer noted that Clair Obscur’s Metacritic rating, rated 93 by critics, was the most surprising moment to the team versus our early predictions and what the reality proved to be. Because when it dropped the entire team were cheering loudly. The energy was electric.”

The positive reception prompted Sandfall developing a complimentary expansion for players featuring fresh areas, enemies, plus epic encounters, which they said will release within the “upcoming month[s]”.

However, despite the game's evolution, don’t expect the team will expand. “We have a great team guided by a visionary director possessing strong ideas for this game plus upcoming innovations. We'd like to keep the small-team dynamic that led to our success and perhaps create one big game after another,” they said.

Their team size sparked plenty of debate when the game came out. Some developers, including renowned designers, looked at Sandfall’s team as the “ideal” for creative teams. Despite being truly compact versus large developers, a quick look at the game's credits indicates many individuals participated; Sandfall partnered with overseas animators to work on gameplay animations, for example.

“We will hire a little more for sure if we have a future production surge in the coming years,” the producer commented. “But I would see more of a workshop of a few highly skilled individuals that can make a work of art together.” It was stated that their core belief as developers “focuses on preserving the strengths that enabled this success originally.”

Although it's premature for the studio to reveal exact details about future projects — rest assured, efforts were made — the team does know their fundamental principles. “Turn-based gameplay, is integral to our identity of our creations,” the lead programmer explained. “It's a bit too early to be able to tell our next interests, however, it's crucial to adhere to our studio's essence featuring rich storytelling and engaging mechanics that inspires the team.”

The lead programmer noted how this game originated from their director “work[ing] on his dream game. We aspire that's something will be repeated as well for future productions.”