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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just an impressive GOTY contender, it’s also an enormous financial hit. Developer Sandfall Interactive along with publisher Kepler Interactive revealed that the game surpassed five million copies in sales, and that’s despite it being a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

This achievement came as a shock for the team. “I was strongly believing that we'd create a good game garnering moderate market performance,” the COO and producer commented.

A technical director pointed out the game's critical score, rated 93 by critics, was the greatest surprise” to the team relative to our early predictions and what the reality of the field was. Because when it dropped all staff members celebrated excitedly. It felt absolutely wild.”

This triumph has led to Sandfall developing a free update for the title including novel settings, foes, plus epic encounters, as announced will release in the next few months.

However, as the title expands, fans shouldn't anticipate they'll hire extensively. “We have an excellent group under clear creative leadership who has a great vision for the project plus upcoming innovations. We intend to preserve the small-team dynamic that made this possible and perhaps create one big game after another,” the executive added.

The size of Sandfall generated plenty of debate upon the title's release. A few well-known creators, including renowned designers, viewed the development group as the “ideal” for a studio. Although the team is and was indeed a small team compared to its AAA counterparts, one glance at Expedition 33’s credits shows that many individuals participated; Sandfall contracted a Korean team for animation work, as an instance.

“We will hire a little more certainly when facing next an upcoming production peak down the line,” the producer stated. “Yet I picture essentially a craft studio with a small number of exceptionally gifted creators that create collective masterpieces.” It was stated that their core belief as developers “focuses on preserving the successful elements that made this achievement possible from the start.”

Although it's not the right time to say specifically what’s next — believe me, efforts were made — the developers understand what’s at its core. “Strategic combat, is integral to our identity of what we built,” a developer explained. “It's still premature to announce future passions, yet we must to stay true to our creative core with [a] strong narrative universe and the interesting gameplay that inspires the team.”

The lead programmer added that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 started with the visionary “work[ing] on his dream game. And hopefully this approach we will be able to do in coming projects.”