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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only an impressive GOTY candidate, it’s also an enormous financial hit. Developer Sandfall Interactive along with publisher their publishing partner disclosed that the game exceeded 5 million units sold, this is despite it being a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

This achievement came as an unexpected turn to Sandfall. I was convinced that we would have a solid title achieving reasonable market performance,” a senior team member stated.

A technical director noted that Clair Obscur’s review aggregate, rated 93 by critics, came as “maybe the biggest shock to the team compared to what we anticipated and what the reality turned out to be. Because when it dropped the entire team celebrated excitedly. The energy was electric.”

This triumph has led to the studio creating new free content for the game featuring fresh areas, foes, plus epic encounters, as announced is coming within the “upcoming month[s]”.

That said, despite the game's evolution, it's unlikely they'll hire extensively. “We have an excellent group with a strong creative director possessing strong ideas for the project and future concepts. Our goal is to maintain the small-team dynamic that led to our success then develop large projects one by one,” they noted.

Their team size sparked a storm of discussion following launch. Certain industry figures, like Hideo Kojima, considered the development group as the “ideal” for a studio. Although the team is and was relatively lean compared to its AAA counterparts, one glance at Expedition 33’s credits indicates dozens of people worked on it; the French studio contracted a Korean team to work on gameplay animations, for example.

“Some hiring will occur slightly more definitely should there be a future production surge down the line,” the producer said. “Yet I picture essentially a craft studio of a few highly skilled individuals capable of producing a work of art together.” It was stated that the studio's philosophy as developers “aims to keep the key advantages that led to this accomplishment in the first place.”

Although it's too early for Sandfall to disclose concrete plans about future projects — rest assured, efforts were made — the developers understand what’s at its core. “The turn-based aspect, I think it's in the DNA of our creations,” they explained. “It's still premature to be able to tell our next interests, but it's important also to adhere to our creative core through compelling worlds and the interesting gameplay that drives our passion.”

The lead programmer added that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 originated from the creative director pursuing his ideal project. It is hoped that's something we can continue as well for future productions.”