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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only an impressive GOTY contender, it’s also a massive commercial success. Developer Sandfall Interactive and publisher Kepler Interactive announced that this title exceeded 5 million units sold, this is despite it being a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.

The game's performance came as a surprise to the developers. I was convinced that we would have an enjoyable experience garnering some average market performance,” a key executive explained.

A technical director remarked the game's review aggregate, rated 93 by critics, was “maybe the biggest shock for everyone compared to what we anticipated and the final result proved to be. Because when it dropped all staff members celebrated excitedly. The energy was electric.”

The positive reception has led to the studio creating a complimentary expansion for players with a new environment, foes, along with challenging bosses, reportedly will release within the “upcoming month[s]”.

That said, as the title expands, it's unlikely the studio to grow. “We have an excellent group with a strong creative director possessing strong ideas for our work and future concepts. Our goal is to maintain the close-knit size that led to our success and perhaps create large projects one by one,” the executive noted.

The studio's scale generated a storm of discussion when the game came out. A few well-known creators, like Hideo Kojima, looked at Sandfall’s team as a perfect example for creative teams. Despite being truly compact next to major studios, one glance at Expedition 33’s credits shows that dozens of people were involved; the French studio hired a team in Korea handling movement and effects, as an instance.

“We will hire slightly more certainly if we have an increase in development down the line,” the producer said. “Yet I picture more of a workshop comprising a handful really talented people that create collective masterpieces.” It was stated that the studio's philosophy as developers “focuses on preserving the key advantages that led to this accomplishment from the start.”

While it may be premature for the studio to reveal exact details about future projects — and trust me, efforts were made — the team does know their essential identity. “Strategic combat, forms the foundation of what we built,” they said. “It's still premature to be able to tell what will interest us, but it's important also to stay true to our studio's essence through compelling worlds and the interesting gameplay that excites us.”

The developer mentioned that the project began with their director developing his passion title. And hopefully this approach we will be able to do as well for future productions.”