🔗 Share this article

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a top Game of the Year contender, but also a massive financial hit. Studio Sandfall Interactive along with publisher their publishing partner revealed that this title surpassed 5 million units in sales, this is in spite of its status as a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.

Its success was a shock to the developers. “I was strongly believing that we'd create a good game garnering reasonable sales results,” a senior team member commented.

Another leading developer remarked that Clair Obscur’s Metacritic rating, rated 93 by critics, came as perhaps the most surprising moment to the team compared to what we anticipated and what the reality proved to be. When the score released everybody in the studio celebrated excitedly. The energy was electric.”

That success has led to Sandfall developing a free update for players featuring fresh areas, adversaries, along with challenging bosses, reportedly will release in the next few months.

Nevertheless, while the game is growing, don’t expect the studio to grow. “We have an excellent group guided by a visionary director possessing strong ideas for this game and also for new ideas. We intend to preserve the small-team dynamic that worked for this game and do maybe one big game after another,” the executive added.

The studio's scale sparked a storm of discussion following launch. Some developers, such as the famed director, viewed this studio as a perfect example for a studio. Although the team is and was truly compact next to major studios, one glance at Expedition 33’s credits reveals many individuals worked on it; Sandfall hired a team in Korea handling movement and effects, for example.

“We plan to recruit a bit more for sure when facing an increase in development in upcoming years,” the producer stated. “Yet I picture essentially a craft studio comprising a handful highly skilled individuals that can make collective masterpieces.” He noted that the studio's philosophy as a company “focuses on preserving the successful elements that enabled this success in the first place.”

While it may be premature for the studio to say specifically what’s next — rest assured, I attempted to learn more — the team does know their fundamental principles. “Turn-based gameplay, forms the foundation of this project,” a developer said. “The timing isn't right to announce what will interest us, yet we must to adhere to the DNA of studio featuring rich storytelling and engaging mechanics that excites us.”

They mentioned how this game started with their director pursuing his ideal project. And hopefully that's something we will be able to do as well for future productions.”