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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just an impressive Game of the Year contender, but also a huge commercial success. Developer Sandfall Interactive along with publisher Kepler Interactive revealed that this title surpassed five million copies in sales, this is in spite of it being a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.

This achievement came as quite a surprise to the developers. I firmly believed that we'd create a solid title that would meet some average sales results,” the COO and producer explained.

The CTO and lead programmer noted the game's critical score, rated 93 by critics, came as “maybe the biggest shock to the studio relative to “our initial expectations and what the reality of the field was. When the score released everybody in the studio celebrated excitedly. It felt absolutely wild.”

This triumph prompted work on new free content for the title including novel settings, foes, plus epic encounters, which they said will release sometime soon.

However, as the title expands, it's unlikely they'll hire extensively. “We have a great team under clear creative leadership possessing strong ideas for our work plus upcoming innovations. We'd like to keep the small-team dynamic that led to our success and do maybe large projects one by one,” the producer added.

Their team size sparked plenty of debate when the game came out. A few well-known creators, like Hideo Kojima, considered Sandfall’s team as the model for game development. Although the team is and was relatively lean versus large developers, one glance at Expedition 33’s credits reveals numerous contributors participated; the French studio partnered with overseas animators to work on gameplay animations, as an instance.

“We will hire a little more certainly should there be an increase in development in the coming years,” the executive stated. “But I would see rather a creative atelier of a few really talented people that can make artistic collaborations.” They emphasized that Sandfall’s vision as developers “focuses on preserving the successful elements that made this achievement possible from the start.”

Although it's premature for the studio to reveal exact details regarding upcoming titles — rest assured, efforts were made — the team does know their fundamental principles. “Turn-based gameplay, is integral to our identity of this project,” a developer explained. “It's a bit too early to announce our next interests, however, it's crucial to adhere to our studio's essence through compelling worlds and the interesting gameplay that drives our passion.”

The developer mentioned that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 originated from the visionary pursuing his ideal project. We aspire that's something we can continue with upcoming games.”