🔗 Share this article

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only an impressive Game of the Year candidate, but also an enormous financial hit. Studio Sandfall Interactive along with publisher Kepler Interactive revealed that this title surpassed five million copies in sales, and that’s even with its status as a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

The game's performance came as a surprise to the developers. I was convinced that we would have a solid title that would meet moderate commercial success,” a senior team member stated.

Another leading developer noted that Clair Obscur’s Metacritic rating, now standing at 93, came as perhaps the most surprising moment for everyone compared to what we anticipated and the actual outcome of the field was. Once it was published all staff members was screaming and jumping. The energy was electric.”

The positive reception has led to the studio creating a free update for players featuring fresh areas, adversaries, and boss fights, which they said would be out sometime soon.

Nevertheless, while the game is growing, it's unlikely the team will expand. Our team includes a talented crew guided by a visionary director with a clear direction for this game and future concepts. Our goal is to maintain the human scale that led to our success then develop one big game after another,” they noted.

The studio's scale sparked a storm of discussion following launch. A few well-known creators, including renowned designers, considered the development group as the model for a studio. Although the team is and was indeed a small team compared to its AAA counterparts, a quick look at the title's staff list shows that dozens of people were involved; Sandfall hired a team in Korea to work on gameplay animations, to illustrate.

“We will hire slightly more for sure when facing next an upcoming production peak down the line,” the producer commented. “However, I envision more of a workshop comprising a handful really talented people that create collective masterpieces.” They emphasized that the studio's philosophy as a company “aims to keep the successful elements that made this achievement possible in the first place.”

Although it's not the right time to say specifically about future projects — rest assured, efforts were made — the developers understand their essential identity. “Turn-based gameplay, forms the foundation of our creations,” they explained. “The timing isn't right to specify our next interests, but it's important also to remain faithful to our studio's essence featuring rich storytelling and the interesting gameplay that drives our passion.”

They mentioned that the project originated from the creative director “work[ing] on his dream game. We aspire that philosophy we can continue in coming projects.”