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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only an impressive GOTY candidate, it’s also a massive commercial success. Studio the development team and publisher Kepler Interactive revealed that the game topped five million copies sold, and that’s despite its status as a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.

Its success was a surprise to the developers. I firmly believed that we'd create a solid title achieving some average sales results,” the COO and producer stated.

Another leading developer pointed out the game's review aggregate, rated 93 by critics, was “maybe the biggest shock to the studio relative to our early predictions and the final result turned out to be. When the score released everybody in the studio were cheering loudly. The energy was electric.”

The positive reception prompted Sandfall developing a complimentary expansion for the game including novel settings, foes, along with challenging bosses, as announced will release within the “upcoming month[s]”.

Nevertheless, while the game is growing, fans shouldn't anticipate the studio to grow. Our team includes a talented crew guided by a visionary director who has a great vision for the project and also for new ideas. We'd like to keep the close-knit size that worked for this game then develop major titles sequentially,” the producer said.

The size of Sandfall generated a storm of discussion when the game came out. A few well-known creators, such as the famed director, considered Sandfall’s team as a perfect example for creative teams. While Sandfall was and is truly compact compared to its AAA counterparts, checking Expedition 33’s credits indicates numerous contributors worked on it; Sandfall hired a team in Korea handling movement and effects, for example.

“Some hiring will occur a little more certainly when facing an increase in development down the line,” the executive said. “Yet I picture rather a creative atelier with a small number of exceptionally gifted creators that can make a work of art together.” They emphasized that their core belief as a company “focuses on preserving the strengths that enabled this success from the start.”

While it may be premature for the studio to say specifically about future projects — and trust me, efforts were made — the team does know what’s at its core. “Strategic combat, forms the foundation of this project,” a developer remarked. “The timing isn't right to announce future passions, yet we must to stay true to our studio's essence featuring rich storytelling and the interesting gameplay that inspires the team.”

The lead programmer mentioned how this game began with the visionary “work[ing] on his dream game. We aspire this approach will be repeated with upcoming games.”