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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a strong GOTY candidate, it’s also an enormous sales triumph. Developer Sandfall Interactive along with publisher their publishing partner disclosed that this title topped 5 million units in sales, and that’s despite it being a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.

This achievement was a shock to the developers. I was convinced that we would have a solid title achieving some average sales results,” a key executive commented.

The CTO and lead programmer remarked this title's critical score, now standing at 93, came as perhaps “maybe the biggest shock for everyone versus “our initial expectations and what the reality proved to be. Once it was published all staff members was screaming and jumping. It felt absolutely wild.”

That success resulted in Sandfall developing a free update for the game with a new environment, enemies, plus epic encounters, reportedly is coming sometime soon.

Nevertheless, despite the game's evolution, don’t expect they'll hire extensively. Our team includes a talented crew under clear creative leadership possessing strong ideas for the project plus upcoming innovations. We intend to preserve the small-team dynamic that worked for this game and do maybe one big game after another,” they said.

The studio's scale sparked a storm of discussion following launch. A few well-known creators, like Hideo Kojima, looked at Sandfall’s team as a perfect example for creative teams. Although the team is and was truly compact compared to its AAA counterparts, checking the game's credits reveals numerous contributors worked on it; Sandfall hired a team in Korea to work on gameplay animations, as an instance.

“We plan to recruit a little more certainly when facing next an upcoming production peak down the line,” the executive said. “Yet I picture essentially a craft studio comprising a handful exceptionally gifted creators capable of producing a work of art together.” They emphasized that their core belief as developers “focuses on preserving the strengths that made this achievement possible originally.”

While it may be too early for Sandfall to disclose concrete plans what’s next — and trust me, efforts were made — the team does know their fundamental principles. “Turn-based gameplay, is integral to our identity of our creations,” the lead programmer explained. “It's a bit too early to announce what will interest us, but it's important also to adhere to our creative core with [a] strong narrative universe plus innovative play that inspires the team.”

They noted that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 started with their director pursuing his ideal project. It is hoped that's something we will be able to do in coming projects.”