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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only an impressive GOTY candidate, it’s also a huge commercial success. Developer Sandfall Interactive and publisher their publishing partner disclosed that this title exceeded five million copies sold, and that’s in spite of it being a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

The game's performance came as quite a shock to Sandfall. I firmly believed that we'd create an enjoyable experience that would meet some average commercial success,” the COO and producer commented.

The CTO and lead programmer remarked that Clair Obscur’s critical score, rated 93 by critics, was “maybe the biggest shock for everyone relative to what we anticipated and the final result turned out to be. Because when it dropped the entire team was screaming and jumping. The energy was electric.”

This triumph has led to work on new free content for the title with a new environment, enemies, plus epic encounters, reportedly would be out in the next few months.

That said, as the title expands, it's unlikely the team will expand. We've built a talented crew with a strong creative director with a clear direction for the project and also for new ideas. Our goal is to maintain the small-team dynamic that made this possible then develop large projects one by one,” they added.

The size of Sandfall generated a storm of discussion upon the title's release. A few well-known creators, like Hideo Kojima, considered this studio as the model for creative teams. Although the team is and was truly compact next to major studios, one glance at Expedition 33’s credits shows that numerous contributors participated; Sandfall contracted a Korean team to work on gameplay animations, to illustrate.

“We plan to recruit slightly more certainly should there be next an upcoming production peak down the line,” the executive commented. “However, I envision more of a workshop with a small number of really talented people that can make artistic collaborations.” He noted that Sandfall’s vision as developers “focuses on preserving the successful elements that led to this accomplishment from the start.”

While it may be too early for Sandfall to disclose concrete plans regarding upcoming titles — believe me, I attempted to learn more — they are certain their fundamental principles. “Strategic combat, is integral to our identity of this project,” they remarked. “It's a bit too early to be able to tell our next interests, however, it's crucial to remain faithful to our creative core through compelling worlds and the interesting gameplay that excites us.”

The lead programmer noted how this game originated from the visionary developing his passion title. We aspire that philosophy will be repeated as well for future productions.”