🔗 Share this article

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a strong GOTY contender, but also a massive commercial success. Studio the development team along with publisher Kepler Interactive announced that this title exceeded 5 million units in sales, this is in spite of its status as a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

The game's performance came as quite a surprise for the team. I was convinced that we'd create an enjoyable experience that would meet moderate commercial success,” the COO and producer stated.

Another leading developer noted this title's critical score, rated 93 by critics, came as the greatest surprise” to the studio relative to our early predictions and what the reality turned out to be. Because when it dropped the entire team was screaming and jumping. It was really frantic.”

This triumph has led to work on a complimentary expansion for the title with a new environment, adversaries, and boss fights, which they said will release sometime soon.

That said, while the game is growing, don’t expect the studio to grow. We've built a talented crew under clear creative leadership with a clear direction for the project and also for new ideas. We'd like to keep the close-knit size that worked for this game then develop large projects one by one,” the executive noted.

Their team size sparked plenty of debate following launch. A few well-known creators, such as the famed director, looked at the development group as the “ideal” for a studio. While Sandfall was and is relatively lean versus large developers, a quick look at the title's staff list indicates numerous contributors were involved; Sandfall hired a team in Korea for animation work, for example.

“We will hire slightly more for sure if we have a future production surge in upcoming years,” the producer said. “Yet I picture essentially a craft studio of a few really talented people that can make artistic collaborations.” It was stated that Sandfall’s vision as a company “aims to keep the strengths that led to this accomplishment in the first place.”

Despite being not the right time to say specifically what’s next — rest assured, I tried to get them to — the developers understand their essential identity. “Turn-based gameplay, is integral to our identity of our creations,” they remarked. “The timing isn't right to be able to tell our next interests, but it's important also to adhere to the DNA of studio featuring rich storytelling plus innovative play that inspires the team.”

They added that the project began with their director “work[ing] on his dream game. We aspire that's something will be repeated with upcoming games.”