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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a top GOTY candidate, it’s also a huge commercial success. Developer the development team and publisher Kepler Interactive disclosed that the game exceeded five million copies in sales, and that’s despite its status as a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

Its success came as quite an unexpected turn for the team. I was convinced that we would have an enjoyable experience that would meet some average market performance,” a key executive stated.

The CTO and lead programmer noted the game's Metacritic rating, which currently sits at 93, came as the greatest surprise” for everyone relative to our early predictions and what the reality turned out to be. Because when it dropped the entire team were cheering loudly. The energy was electric.”

That success prompted work on new free content for the game including novel settings, foes, plus epic encounters, reportedly is coming in the next few months.

That said, despite the game's evolution, it's unlikely the studio to grow. We've built an excellent group guided by a visionary director possessing strong ideas for this game and future concepts. We'd like to keep the human scale that led to our success and perhaps create large projects one by one,” the producer noted.

Their team size generated significant conversation when the game came out. Some developers, such as the famed director, looked at Sandfall’s team as the model for a studio. While Sandfall was and is indeed a small team next to major studios, a quick look at the title's staff list shows that many individuals were involved; the French studio partnered with overseas animators for animation work, for example.

“We will hire a bit more certainly if we have an increase in development in the coming years,” the producer said. “Yet I picture essentially a craft studio of a few exceptionally gifted creators that create a work of art together.” He noted that their core belief as developers “aims to keep the key advantages that led to this accomplishment in the first place.”

Although it's too early for Sandfall to disclose concrete plans what’s next — and trust me, I tried to get them to — they are certain their fundamental principles. “Strategic combat, forms the foundation of our creations,” the lead programmer explained. “It's still premature to be able to tell what will interest us, yet we must to adhere to the DNA of studio with [a] strong narrative universe and engaging mechanics that inspires the team.”

The lead programmer mentioned that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 began with the visionary pursuing his ideal project. We aspire that's something we will be able to do as well for future productions.”