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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only an impressive GOTY contender, it’s also an enormous sales triumph. Studio Sandfall Interactive along with publisher Kepler Interactive announced that this title exceeded 5 million units in sales, and that’s in spite of its status as a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.

Its success was a surprise for the team. I was convinced that we would have a good game that would meet reasonable commercial success,” the COO and producer explained.

Another leading developer remarked this title's Metacritic rating, which currently sits at 93, was “maybe the biggest shock for everyone versus what we anticipated and what the reality of the field was. Because when it dropped all staff members was screaming and jumping. It was really frantic.”

The positive reception prompted Sandfall developing a free update for players featuring fresh areas, enemies, plus epic encounters, which they said will release sometime soon.

Nevertheless, while the game is growing, fans shouldn't anticipate the studio to grow. Our team includes an excellent group guided by a visionary director with a clear direction for this game and also for new ideas. We'd like to keep the human scale that led to our success and do maybe large projects one by one,” the producer noted.

The size of Sandfall generated plenty of debate when the game came out. Some developers, including renowned designers, viewed Sandfall’s team as a perfect example for a studio. Despite being relatively lean versus large developers, a quick look at the title's staff list indicates many individuals worked on it; Sandfall hired a team in Korea for animation work, for example.

“Some hiring will occur slightly more definitely when facing a future production surge down the line,” they stated. “However, I envision more of a workshop with a small number of exceptionally gifted creators that can make a work of art together.” They emphasized that their core belief as developers “aims to keep the successful elements that enabled this success from the start.”

Although it's too early for Sandfall to say specifically regarding upcoming titles — believe me, I tried to get them to — the developers understand their essential identity. “The turn-based aspect, is integral to our identity of our creations,” the lead programmer said. “It's a bit too early to be able to tell future passions, but it's important also to adhere to our studio's essence through compelling worlds and engaging mechanics that excites us.”

The developer noted how this game originated from their director pursuing his ideal project. And hopefully this approach we can continue as well for future productions.”