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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a strong Game of the Year contender, but also a massive sales triumph. Studio Sandfall Interactive along with publisher Kepler Interactive revealed that this title surpassed five million copies in sales, this is even with it being a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.

The game's performance came as a surprise to the developers. “I was strongly believing that we'd create a solid title achieving moderate market performance,” a senior team member commented.

The CTO and lead programmer remarked the game's critical score, which currently sits at 93, was the most surprising moment to the studio compared to “our initial expectations and the final result of the field was. When the score released the entire team were cheering loudly. The energy was electric.”

That success resulted in the studio creating a free update for the game including novel settings, enemies, plus epic encounters, reportedly would be out in the next few months.

That said, as the title expands, it's unlikely they'll hire extensively. We've built an excellent group with a strong creative director with a clear direction for this game and future concepts. We'd like to keep the human scale that made this possible and perhaps create major titles sequentially,” they said.

The studio's scale drummed up a storm of discussion following launch. A few well-known creators, including renowned designers, looked at the development group as the “ideal” for game development. While Sandfall was and is truly compact versus large developers, checking the title's staff list reveals numerous contributors worked on it; Sandfall partnered with overseas animators to work on gameplay animations, for example.

“We plan to recruit slightly more definitely when facing an increase in development in upcoming years,” the producer said. “However, I envision more of a workshop of a few highly skilled individuals that can make collective masterpieces.” They emphasized that Sandfall’s vision as a company “focuses on preserving the strengths that led to this accomplishment from the start.”

Although it's premature for the studio to reveal exact details about future projects — rest assured, efforts were made — the developers understand what’s at its core. “The turn-based aspect, is integral to our identity of what we built,” they said. “It's still premature to announce future passions, however, it's crucial to remain faithful to our studio's essence featuring rich storytelling and engaging mechanics that excites us.”

They noted how this game originated from their director pursuing his ideal project. We aspire that's something we can continue with upcoming games.”