🔗 Share this article

The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a strong GOTY contender, but also a massive sales triumph. Studio Sandfall Interactive along with publisher Kepler Interactive disclosed that this title surpassed five million copies in sales, and that’s in spite of its status as a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

This achievement was an unexpected turn to the developers. “I was strongly believing that we would have a solid title that would meet some average commercial success,” a key executive commented.

The CTO and lead programmer remarked this title's critical score, rated 93 by critics, came as the most surprising moment for everyone versus what we anticipated and the actual outcome turned out to be. When the score released all staff members were cheering loudly. The energy was electric.”

This triumph prompted Sandfall developing new free content for players featuring fresh areas, enemies, along with challenging bosses, as announced would be out within the “upcoming month[s]”.

That said, despite the game's evolution, don’t expect they'll hire extensively. Our team includes an excellent group under clear creative leadership possessing strong ideas for this game plus upcoming innovations. Our goal is to maintain the human scale that worked for this game and perhaps create one big game after another,” they added.

The studio's scale generated significant conversation upon the title's release. Some developers, including renowned designers, viewed this studio as the model for a studio. Despite being truly compact next to major studios, one glance at the game's credits shows that many individuals worked on it; the French studio partnered with overseas animators for animation work, as an instance.

“We plan to recruit a little more definitely if we have next an upcoming production peak in the coming years,” the executive commented. “Yet I picture rather a creative atelier of a few exceptionally gifted creators that create a work of art together.” They emphasized that Sandfall’s vision as a company “focuses on preserving the strengths that led to this accomplishment originally.”

Despite being not the right time to disclose concrete plans regarding upcoming titles — believe me, I attempted to learn more — the developers understand their fundamental principles. “Strategic combat, is integral to our identity of this project,” the lead programmer explained. “The timing isn't right to be able to tell future passions, but it's important also to adhere to our studio's essence featuring rich storytelling and the interesting gameplay that drives our passion.”

The lead programmer noted that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 originated from the visionary pursuing his ideal project. And hopefully that philosophy we can continue in coming projects.”