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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a top Game of the Year candidate, but also an enormous financial hit. Studio Sandfall Interactive and publisher Kepler Interactive revealed that this title surpassed five million copies sold, this is even with it being a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

This achievement was an unexpected turn for the team. “I was strongly believing that we would have an enjoyable experience garnering reasonable sales results,” a key executive commented.

Another leading developer pointed out the game's review aggregate, rated 93 by critics, was “maybe the biggest shock for everyone relative to our early predictions and the actual outcome turned out to be. Once it was published everybody in the studio were cheering loudly. The energy was electric.”

The positive reception has led to work on a free update for players featuring fresh areas, foes, plus epic encounters, as announced will release within the “upcoming month[s]”.

That said, while the game is growing, fans shouldn't anticipate the studio to grow. Our team includes a talented crew with a strong creative director with a clear direction for this game and future concepts. Our goal is to maintain the close-knit size that made this possible and perhaps create major titles sequentially,” the producer added.

The size of Sandfall generated plenty of debate upon the title's release. Certain industry figures, like Hideo Kojima, looked at this studio as the model for creative teams. While Sandfall was and is truly compact compared to its AAA counterparts, a quick look at the title's staff list reveals numerous contributors were involved; the French studio contracted a Korean team for animation work, to illustrate.

“We will hire a little more for sure should there be an increase in development down the line,” the producer said. “Yet I picture more of a workshop with a small number of highly skilled individuals capable of producing collective masterpieces.” They emphasized that their core belief as a studio “focuses on preserving the strengths that enabled this success originally.”

Although it's not the right time to reveal exact details regarding upcoming titles — rest assured, efforts were made — the developers understand what’s at its core. “Turn-based gameplay, is integral to our identity of our creations,” they said. “The timing isn't right to specify our next interests, yet we must to stay true to the DNA of studio featuring rich storytelling plus innovative play that excites us.”

They noted that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 originated from their director “work[ing] on his dream game. And hopefully that's something we will be able to do as well for future productions.”