Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a strong GOTY contender, it’s also a massive sales triumph. Studio Sandfall Interactive along with publisher Kepler Interactive revealed that the game exceeded 5 million units sold, this is in spite of it being a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.
The game's performance came as an unexpected turn to the developers. I firmly believed that we'd create a solid title garnering moderate commercial success,” a senior team member commented.
The CTO and lead programmer noted this title's Metacritic rating, now standing at 93, came as perhaps the greatest surprise” for everyone relative to our early predictions and the final result turned out to be. Because when it dropped all staff members were cheering loudly. It felt absolutely wild.”
This triumph prompted the studio creating new free content for players including novel settings, adversaries, plus epic encounters, reportedly is coming within the “upcoming month[s]”.
However, while the game is growing, fans shouldn't anticipate the studio to grow. Our team includes a talented crew with a strong creative director possessing strong ideas for our work and also for new ideas. Our goal is to maintain the human scale that led to our success then develop one big game after another,” they noted.
Their team size sparked a storm of discussion upon the title's release. A few well-known creators, including renowned designers, viewed Sandfall’s team as the “ideal” for creative teams. Despite being indeed a small team next to major studios, one glance at the game's credits indicates dozens of people participated; Sandfall hired a team in Korea handling movement and effects, to illustrate.
“Some hiring will occur slightly more certainly should there be a future production surge in upcoming years,” the producer said. “Yet I picture more of a workshop comprising a handful exceptionally gifted creators capable of producing artistic collaborations.” They emphasized that their core belief as a company “focuses on preserving the successful elements that enabled this success originally.”
Despite being too early for Sandfall to reveal exact details what’s next — rest assured, I tried to get them to — the developers understand their fundamental principles. “Turn-based gameplay, forms the foundation of this project,” a developer remarked. “It's still premature to announce what will interest us, but it's important also to remain faithful to our studio's essence through compelling worlds and engaging mechanics that inspires the team.”
The lead programmer mentioned how this game started with the visionary pursuing his ideal project. It is hoped that's something we will be able to do with upcoming games.”
