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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a top Game of the Year candidate, but also a huge financial hit. Developer Sandfall Interactive along with publisher their publishing partner announced that the game topped 5 million units sold, this is in spite of its status as a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.

The game's performance came as a shock to the developers. I firmly believed that we'd create a solid title garnering some average market performance,” a senior team member commented.

Another leading developer noted this title's Metacritic rating, rated 93 by critics, was the greatest surprise” to the studio relative to what we anticipated and the actual outcome proved to be. Because when it dropped all staff members was screaming and jumping. It was really frantic.”

That success prompted Sandfall developing a complimentary expansion for the title with a new environment, enemies, plus epic encounters, reportedly will release sometime soon.

Nevertheless, while the game is growing, don’t expect the team will expand. We've built a great team 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 said.

The size of Sandfall generated plenty of debate following launch. A few well-known creators, such as the famed director, looked at Sandfall’s team as a perfect example for creative teams. While Sandfall was and is relatively lean compared to its AAA counterparts, checking the game's credits shows that dozens of people participated; Sandfall contracted a Korean team for animation work, to illustrate.

“Some hiring will occur slightly more certainly when facing next an upcoming production peak in upcoming years,” the producer stated. “Yet I picture essentially a craft studio with a small number of exceptionally gifted creators that can make collective masterpieces.” It was stated that Sandfall’s vision as developers “is more to maintain the key advantages that made this achievement possible originally.”

While it may be too early for Sandfall to reveal exact details what’s next — believe me, I tried to get them to — the developers understand their essential identity. “The turn-based aspect, is integral to our identity of this project,” they explained. “It's a bit too early to be able to tell what will interest us, however, it's crucial to stay true to our creative core featuring rich storytelling and engaging mechanics that excites us.”

They mentioned that the project started with their director “work[ing] on his dream game. It is hoped this approach we can continue with upcoming games.”