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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a strong Game of the Year candidate, but also a massive commercial success. Studio the development team and publisher Kepler Interactive disclosed that this title topped 5 million units sold, and that’s even with it being a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.

This achievement came as quite a shock to Sandfall. “I was strongly believing that we would have a good game that would meet moderate sales results,” the COO and producer explained.

A technical director pointed out the game's Metacritic rating, now standing at 93, came as the greatest surprise” for everyone relative to what we anticipated and the final result proved to be. Because when it dropped everybody in the studio celebrated excitedly. It felt absolutely wild.”

This triumph has led to Sandfall developing a free update for the game including novel settings, adversaries, and boss fights, reportedly is coming in the next few months.

Nevertheless, while the game is growing, fans shouldn't anticipate the studio to grow. We've built a talented crew guided by a visionary director who has a great vision for this game plus upcoming innovations. Our goal is to maintain the small-team dynamic that worked for this game then develop large projects one by one,” the executive said.

The studio's scale sparked significant conversation when the game came out. Certain industry figures, including renowned designers, considered the development group as the “ideal” for game development. While Sandfall was and is indeed a small team versus large developers, checking the title's staff list shows that numerous contributors worked on it; Sandfall contracted a Korean team handling movement and effects, to illustrate.

“We will hire a bit more definitely should there be next an upcoming production peak in the coming years,” the producer commented. “Yet I picture rather a creative atelier comprising a handful really talented people capable of producing artistic collaborations.” He noted that the studio's philosophy as a studio “aims to keep the key advantages that enabled this success in the first place.”

Although it's too early for Sandfall to say specifically about future projects — and trust me, I attempted to learn more — they are certain what’s at its core. “Strategic combat, is integral to our identity of our creations,” the lead programmer said. “It's still premature to announce our next interests, however, it's crucial to remain faithful to the DNA of studio through compelling worlds and the interesting gameplay that inspires the team.”

They added how this game began with the creative director developing his passion title. And hopefully this approach we will be able to do as well for future productions.”