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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 along with publisher Kepler Interactive revealed that this title topped five million copies sold, this is in spite of it being a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

This achievement came as quite an unexpected turn for the team. I firmly believed that we would have an enjoyable experience garnering moderate market performance,” a key executive commented.

The CTO and lead programmer pointed out this title's review aggregate, which currently sits at 93, came as perhaps the greatest surprise” for everyone versus “our initial expectations and what the reality turned out to be. Once it was published the entire team was screaming and jumping. The energy was electric.”

That success resulted in the studio creating new free content for players featuring fresh areas, foes, and boss fights, as announced will release within the “upcoming month[s]”.

Nevertheless, while the game is growing, it's unlikely they'll hire extensively. “We have a great team under clear creative leadership with a clear direction for the project plus upcoming innovations. We intend to preserve the close-knit size that made this possible and perhaps create major titles sequentially,” the executive said.

Their team size generated plenty of debate following launch. Certain industry figures, like Hideo Kojima, considered this studio as a perfect example for creative teams. Despite being indeed a small team compared to its AAA counterparts, checking the title's staff list shows that numerous contributors worked on it; the French studio contracted a Korean team to work on gameplay animations, to illustrate.

“We plan to recruit slightly more for sure if we have an increase in development in upcoming years,” they commented. “Yet I picture rather a creative atelier with a small number of really talented people capable of producing a work of art together.” He noted that Sandfall’s vision as a company “is more to maintain the strengths that enabled this success originally.”

Despite being premature for the studio to say specifically what’s next — rest assured, I tried to get them to — the developers understand their essential identity. “Strategic combat, is integral to our identity of this project,” they said. “The timing isn't right to specify our next interests, yet we must to stay true to the DNA of studio through compelling worlds and engaging mechanics that drives our passion.”

The developer noted that the project started with their director “work[ing] on his dream game. We aspire that's something will be repeated with upcoming games.”