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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just an impressive GOTY candidate, it’s also a huge financial hit. Developer the development team along with publisher Kepler Interactive revealed that this title surpassed 5 million units in sales, this is in spite of it being a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.

The game's performance was a shock to Sandfall. “I was strongly believing that we would have a solid title garnering some average commercial success,” the COO and producer explained.

The CTO and lead programmer remarked this title's Metacritic rating, rated 93 by critics, came as the most surprising moment for everyone versus our early predictions and what the reality of the field was. Because when it dropped everybody in the studio celebrated excitedly. It felt absolutely wild.”

The positive reception resulted in work on a free update for the title with a new environment, adversaries, along with challenging bosses, which they said will release within the “upcoming month[s]”.

However, despite the game's evolution, it's unlikely the studio to grow. “We have a talented crew with a strong creative director who has a great vision for our work and also for new ideas. We intend to preserve the small-team dynamic that made this possible and perhaps create one big game after another,” they added.

The studio's scale generated plenty of debate following launch. A few well-known creators, including renowned designers, considered Sandfall’s team as the “ideal” for game development. While Sandfall was and is relatively lean versus large developers, checking the game's credits reveals numerous contributors were involved; the French studio partnered with overseas animators handling movement and effects, as an instance.

“We plan to recruit slightly more certainly when facing a future production surge in the coming years,” they said. “However, I envision essentially a craft studio of a few really talented people capable of producing a work of art together.” They emphasized that the studio's philosophy as a company “aims to keep the strengths that made this achievement possible in the first place.”

While it may be premature for the studio to say specifically about future projects — rest assured, I attempted to learn more — they are certain their essential identity. “Strategic combat, is integral to our identity of our creations,” they explained. “It's still premature to announce future passions, but it's important also to stay true to the DNA of studio featuring rich storytelling and the interesting gameplay that excites us.”

The lead programmer added how this game started with the creative director developing his passion title. And hopefully this approach will be repeated as well for future productions.”