🔗 Share this article

The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a strong Game of the Year contender, it’s also a massive financial hit. Studio Sandfall Interactive along with publisher Kepler Interactive disclosed that this title topped 5 million units in sales, and that’s despite its status as a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

This achievement was a surprise to the developers. I was convinced that we would have a solid title achieving some average market performance,” a senior team member stated.

The CTO and lead programmer pointed out the game's Metacritic rating, rated 93 by critics, came as perhaps “maybe the biggest shock to the team compared to our early predictions and the actual outcome proved to be. Because when it dropped the entire team was screaming and jumping. The energy was electric.”

That success resulted in Sandfall developing a complimentary expansion for players with a new environment, adversaries, plus epic encounters, as announced would be out within the “upcoming month[s]”.

That said, while the game is growing, it's unlikely the team will expand. “We have an excellent group under clear creative leadership who has a great vision for the project plus upcoming innovations. Our goal is to maintain the small-team dynamic that led to our success then develop one big game after another,” the producer noted.

The size of Sandfall sparked significant conversation following launch. Certain industry figures, such as the famed director, considered this studio as the model for game development. Despite being indeed a small team compared to its AAA counterparts, one glance at the title's staff list shows that many individuals worked on it; the French studio hired a team in Korea handling movement and effects, for example.

“We will hire a bit more certainly if we have next an upcoming production peak in the coming years,” they said. “However, I envision essentially a craft studio comprising a handful really talented people that create artistic collaborations.” They emphasized that the studio's philosophy as a company “focuses on preserving the strengths that led to this accomplishment from the start.”

Despite being too early for Sandfall to reveal exact details about future projects — and trust me, I tried to get them to — the team does know what’s at its core. “The turn-based aspect, is integral to our identity of our creations,” a developer said. “It's a bit too early to announce what will interest us, but it's important also to remain faithful to our creative core with [a] strong narrative universe and engaging mechanics that drives our passion.”

The lead programmer mentioned that the project began with their director “work[ing] on his dream game. We aspire that philosophy we will be able to do as well for future productions.”