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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a strong GOTY contender, but also a huge commercial success. Developer Sandfall Interactive along with publisher their publishing partner disclosed that this title topped 5 million units in sales, this is in spite of its status as a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

The game's performance came as an unexpected turn to Sandfall. I was convinced that we would have a solid title garnering reasonable sales results,” a senior team member explained.

A technical director noted that Clair Obscur’s review aggregate, rated 93 by critics, came as the greatest surprise” for everyone relative to our early predictions and the final result turned out to be. Because when it dropped everybody in the studio were cheering loudly. It felt absolutely wild.”

The positive reception prompted Sandfall developing a complimentary expansion for the game with a new environment, enemies, plus epic encounters, which they said would be out within the “upcoming month[s]”.

However, as the title expands, fans shouldn't anticipate they'll hire extensively. “We have a great team guided by a visionary director possessing strong ideas for our work and future concepts. We intend to preserve the human scale that made this possible and do maybe major titles sequentially,” the producer added.

The studio's scale sparked a storm of discussion following launch. A few well-known creators, including renowned designers, considered this studio as a perfect example for game development. Although the team is and was relatively lean versus large developers, a quick look at Expedition 33’s credits indicates dozens of people participated; Sandfall contracted a Korean team for animation work, as an instance.

“Some hiring will occur a little more for sure when facing a future production surge down the line,” the producer said. “But I would see more of a workshop of a few exceptionally gifted creators capable of producing a work of art together.” He noted that Sandfall’s vision as a studio “aims to keep the key advantages that made this achievement possible from the start.”

While it may be not the right time to say specifically regarding upcoming titles — rest assured, efforts were made — the developers understand their essential identity. “Turn-based gameplay, is integral to our identity of this project,” a developer remarked. “It's a bit too early to be able to tell future passions, yet we must to stay true to our studio's essence featuring rich storytelling and the interesting gameplay that inspires the team.”

The lead programmer noted that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 started with their director developing his passion title. And hopefully that's something we will be able to do as well for future productions.”