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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a strong Game of the Year candidate, it’s also an enormous financial hit. Developer the development team and publisher Kepler Interactive disclosed that the game surpassed five million copies in sales, and that’s even with its status as a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

The game's performance was a shock to the developers. “I was strongly believing that we'd create an enjoyable experience achieving some average commercial success,” a key executive commented.

The CTO and lead programmer pointed out that Clair Obscur’s Metacritic rating, rated 93 by critics, came as the greatest surprise” to the team compared to “our initial expectations and the final result proved to be. Because when it dropped everybody in the studio were cheering loudly. It was really frantic.”

That success resulted in Sandfall developing a complimentary expansion for the game featuring fresh areas, enemies, and boss fights, as announced is coming within the “upcoming month[s]”.

Nevertheless, as the title expands, fans shouldn't anticipate the studio to grow. We've built a talented crew with a strong creative director with a clear direction for our work and also for new ideas. We intend to preserve the close-knit size that worked for this game then develop one big game after another,” the producer noted.

The size of Sandfall sparked a storm of discussion upon the title's release. Certain industry figures, including renowned designers, viewed the development group as the model for a studio. While Sandfall was and is indeed a small team next to major studios, checking the title's staff list shows that numerous contributors worked on it; Sandfall partnered with overseas animators handling movement and effects, as an instance.

“Some hiring will occur a little more for sure should there be next an upcoming production peak down the line,” the producer stated. “But I would see rather a creative atelier with a small number of really talented people that create collective masterpieces.” They emphasized that Sandfall’s vision as a company “focuses on preserving the strengths that enabled this success in the first place.”

While it may be not the right time to disclose concrete plans regarding upcoming titles — and trust me, efforts were made — they are certain their essential identity. “Turn-based gameplay, I think it's in the DNA of what we built,” they remarked. “It's still premature to announce future passions, but it's important also to adhere to our studio's essence through compelling worlds and the interesting gameplay that drives our passion.”

They noted that the project originated from their director “work[ing] on his dream game. We aspire that's something we can continue in coming projects.”