🔗 Share this article

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just an impressive GOTY candidate, but also a huge commercial success. Developer Sandfall Interactive and publisher Kepler Interactive disclosed that the game surpassed 5 million units in sales, this is despite its status as a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.

Its success was an unexpected turn to Sandfall. I was convinced that we would have an enjoyable experience garnering some average commercial success,” a senior team member explained.

The CTO and lead programmer pointed out that Clair Obscur’s review aggregate, rated 93 by critics, came as perhaps the greatest surprise” to the team versus our early predictions and the final result proved to be. Because when it dropped everybody in the studio was screaming and jumping. It was really frantic.”

This triumph has led to work on a complimentary expansion for the game with a new environment, enemies, plus epic encounters, which they said would be out within the “upcoming month[s]”.

That said, despite the game's evolution, fans shouldn't anticipate the team will expand. We've built a great team with a strong creative director possessing strong ideas for our work and future concepts. We intend to preserve the human scale that made this possible and perhaps create large projects one by one,” the executive added.

The studio's scale drummed up plenty of debate upon the title's release. A few well-known creators, like Hideo Kojima, considered the development group as the model for a studio. Although the team is and was indeed a small team next to major studios, checking Expedition 33’s credits shows that numerous contributors participated; Sandfall partnered with overseas animators handling movement and effects, for example.

“Some hiring will occur slightly more certainly should there be an increase in development in upcoming years,” the executive commented. “However, I envision more of a workshop comprising a handful exceptionally gifted creators that create artistic collaborations.” They emphasized that their core belief as a company “is more to maintain the strengths that enabled this success in the first place.”

While it may be premature for the studio to reveal exact details regarding upcoming titles — and trust me, I attempted to learn more — they are certain their fundamental principles. “Strategic combat, is integral to our identity of this project,” the lead programmer remarked. “It's a bit too early to announce future passions, but it's important also to remain faithful to the DNA of studio through compelling worlds and the interesting gameplay that drives our passion.”

They mentioned how this game started with the creative director developing his passion title. We aspire this approach we can continue as well for future productions.”