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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just an impressive GOTY candidate, but also a huge financial hit. Developer the development team and publisher their publishing partner disclosed that this title exceeded 5 million units in sales, this is despite its status as a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

The game's performance was a surprise to the developers. I firmly believed that we'd create a good game achieving reasonable commercial success,” a senior team member explained.

A technical director noted the game's Metacritic rating, now standing at 93, came as perhaps the most surprising moment for everyone compared to our early predictions and the final result turned out to be. Once it was published everybody in the studio celebrated excitedly. It felt absolutely wild.”

The positive reception prompted work on a free update for players including novel settings, adversaries, and boss fights, which they said would be out within the “upcoming month[s]”.

However, while the game is growing, it's unlikely the studio to grow. “We have an excellent group under clear creative leadership possessing strong ideas for the project plus upcoming innovations. We'd like to keep the small-team dynamic that led to our success and perhaps create one big game after another,” they noted.

The size of Sandfall sparked a storm of discussion following launch. Some developers, including renowned designers, looked at this studio as the “ideal” for game development. Despite being indeed a small team next to major studios, checking the title's staff list reveals numerous contributors participated; Sandfall partnered with overseas animators for animation work, for example.

“Some hiring will occur a little more certainly should there be an increase in development in the coming years,” the executive commented. “However, I envision essentially a craft studio of a few exceptionally gifted creators capable of producing artistic collaborations.” It was stated that the studio's philosophy as a studio “aims to keep the successful elements that enabled this success originally.”

Despite being premature for the studio to disclose concrete plans regarding upcoming titles — rest assured, I tried to get them to — the developers understand their essential identity. “Turn-based gameplay, forms the foundation of this project,” the lead programmer said. “It's still premature to announce our next interests, yet we must to adhere to the DNA of studio featuring rich storytelling and engaging mechanics that excites us.”

They noted that the project originated from the visionary “work[ing] on his dream game. We aspire that's something will be repeated as well for future productions.”