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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only an impressive GOTY candidate, but also a massive sales triumph. Studio Sandfall Interactive and publisher Kepler Interactive disclosed that the game surpassed 5 million units in sales, and that’s in spite of it being a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

The game's performance came as quite a shock to the developers. I firmly believed that we'd create a good game garnering moderate commercial success,” the COO and producer commented.

The CTO and lead programmer pointed out the game's review aggregate, which currently sits at 93, was the most surprising moment to the studio versus “our initial expectations and the actual outcome proved to be. Because when it dropped all staff members celebrated excitedly. It was really frantic.”

That success resulted in Sandfall developing a free update for players featuring fresh areas, foes, plus epic encounters, as announced is coming within the “upcoming month[s]”.

That said, despite the game's evolution, fans shouldn't anticipate they'll hire extensively. “We have a great team guided by a visionary director with a clear direction for our work and future concepts. Our goal is to maintain the small-team dynamic that worked for this game then develop one big game after another,” the producer noted.

The studio's scale sparked plenty of debate upon the title's release. Certain industry figures, such as the famed director, considered Sandfall’s team as the “ideal” for a studio. Despite being truly compact next to major studios, a quick look at the game's credits indicates dozens of people worked on it; Sandfall contracted a Korean team to work on gameplay animations, for example.

“Some hiring will occur slightly more definitely when facing an increase in development in upcoming years,” they commented. “Yet I picture rather a creative atelier of a few highly skilled individuals that create collective masterpieces.” It was stated that their core belief as developers “focuses on preserving the strengths that enabled this success originally.”

Despite being not the right time to disclose concrete plans what’s next — believe me, I tried to get them to — they are certain their essential identity. “Strategic combat, I think it's in the DNA of our creations,” a developer explained. “It's a bit too early to announce our next interests, but it's important also to adhere to our studio's essence through compelling worlds and engaging mechanics that drives our passion.”

The lead programmer added that the project began with the creative director developing his passion title. It is hoped that philosophy will be repeated with upcoming games.”