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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a top GOTY candidate, it’s also an enormous commercial success. Developer the development team and publisher Kepler Interactive disclosed that the game topped 5 million units in sales, this is in spite of its status as a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.

Its success came as quite a surprise for the team. I firmly believed that we would have a good game garnering moderate commercial success,” a key executive explained.

Another leading developer remarked this title's critical score, now standing at 93, was “maybe the biggest shock for everyone relative to “our initial expectations and the actual outcome turned out to be. When the score released everybody in the studio celebrated excitedly. The energy was electric.”

The positive reception resulted in Sandfall developing new free content for players including novel settings, enemies, along with challenging bosses, as announced is coming in the next few months.

Nevertheless, as the title expands, fans shouldn't anticipate the team will expand. Our team includes a talented crew under clear creative leadership with a clear direction for this game and future concepts. We'd like to keep the human scale that worked for this game and do maybe large projects one by one,” the executive added.

Their team size sparked plenty of debate upon the title's release. Some developers, including renowned designers, viewed the development group as the model for a studio. Despite being truly compact next to major studios, a quick look at Expedition 33’s credits indicates dozens of people were involved; the French studio hired a team in Korea for animation work, for example.

“We will hire a bit more for sure if we have an increase in development in the coming years,” they said. “However, I envision rather a creative atelier of a few really talented people capable of producing artistic collaborations.” He noted that their core belief as a company “focuses on preserving the key advantages that enabled this success from the start.”

Despite being too early for Sandfall to say specifically about future projects — and trust me, I tried to get them to — they are certain their essential identity. “Strategic combat, is integral to our identity of what we built,” they said. “The timing isn't right to be able to tell our next interests, however, it's crucial to remain faithful to the DNA of studio through compelling worlds plus innovative play that drives our passion.”

The lead programmer noted that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 originated from their director developing his passion title. And hopefully that philosophy we can continue with upcoming games.”