🔗 Share this article

The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a strong GOTY contender, but also a massive commercial success. Developer Sandfall Interactive and publisher their publishing partner disclosed that this title surpassed five million copies sold, this is in spite of it being a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

This achievement came as quite a surprise to Sandfall. I was convinced that we would have a solid title garnering moderate commercial success,” a key executive commented.

The CTO and lead programmer pointed out this title's Metacritic rating, now standing at 93, came as the most surprising moment for everyone compared to our early predictions and the actual outcome of the field was. Because when it dropped all staff members was screaming and jumping. The energy was electric.”

The positive reception has led to work on a complimentary expansion for players with a new environment, foes, along with challenging bosses, as announced is coming within the “upcoming month[s]”.

That said, despite the game's evolution, fans shouldn't anticipate they'll hire extensively. Our team includes a great team under clear creative leadership possessing strong ideas for our work and also for new ideas. We intend to preserve the human scale that made this possible and do maybe large projects one by one,” they said.

Their team size generated a storm of discussion when the game came out. A few well-known creators, including renowned designers, viewed the development group as the model for a studio. Although the team is and was relatively lean next to major studios, one glance at the title's staff list indicates many individuals participated; the French studio contracted a Korean team to work on gameplay animations, for example.

“We will hire a bit more certainly if we have a future production surge in the coming years,” they said. “However, I envision more of a workshop of a few exceptionally gifted creators that create artistic collaborations.” They emphasized that their core belief as a company “aims to keep the strengths that made this achievement possible in the first place.”

While it may be premature for the studio to reveal exact details what’s next — and trust me, I tried to get them to — the developers understand their essential identity. “Strategic combat, I think it's in the DNA of this project,” the lead programmer remarked. “The timing isn't right to announce our next interests, but it's important also to remain faithful to the DNA of studio featuring rich storytelling plus innovative play that drives our passion.”

The developer noted that the project originated from the visionary developing his passion title. We aspire this approach will be repeated with upcoming games.”