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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a top GOTY contender, it’s also a huge financial hit. Developer Sandfall Interactive and publisher their publishing partner disclosed that this title exceeded five million copies in sales, and that’s even with it being a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.

This achievement was a surprise to the developers. I was convinced that we would have an enjoyable experience that would meet moderate sales results,” the COO and producer stated.

A technical director remarked the game's review aggregate, now standing at 93, came as the most surprising moment to the team compared to “our initial expectations and the final result proved to be. Once it was published everybody in the studio was screaming and jumping. It was really frantic.”

That success resulted in Sandfall developing a complimentary expansion for the game with a new environment, enemies, along with challenging bosses, which they said is coming sometime soon.

However, despite the game's evolution, fans shouldn't anticipate they'll hire extensively. Our team includes a talented crew under clear creative leadership who has a great vision for this game plus upcoming innovations. Our goal is to maintain the small-team dynamic that worked for this game and do maybe one big game after another,” the executive said.

Their team size sparked plenty of debate when the game came out. Certain industry figures, like Hideo Kojima, considered the development group as the model for creative teams. While Sandfall was and is relatively lean compared to its AAA counterparts, one glance at the game's credits indicates dozens of people worked on it; Sandfall contracted a Korean team for animation work, as an instance.

“We plan to recruit a little more certainly when facing next an upcoming production peak in the coming years,” the executive said. “However, I envision more of a workshop with a small number of really talented people capable of producing a work of art together.” He noted that Sandfall’s vision as a company “aims to keep the strengths that made this achievement possible in the first place.”

While it may be premature for the studio to disclose concrete plans about future projects — rest assured, I tried to get them to — they are certain their fundamental principles. “Turn-based gameplay, forms the foundation of our creations,” the lead programmer remarked. “The timing isn't right to be able to tell what will interest us, yet we must to stay true to our studio's essence featuring rich storytelling and engaging mechanics that inspires the team.”

The developer noted how this game started with the creative director “work[ing] on his dream game. We aspire this approach we can continue in coming projects.”