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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only an impressive Game of the Year candidate, it’s also a massive sales triumph. Developer the development team along with publisher their publishing partner disclosed that this title exceeded 5 million units in sales, this is in spite of its status as a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

This achievement came as quite a shock for the team. I firmly believed that we would have a solid title that would meet some average market performance,” a key executive commented.

The CTO and lead programmer noted that Clair Obscur’s Metacritic rating, rated 93 by critics, was the greatest surprise” to the team versus our early predictions and the final result proved to be. Once it was published the entire team were cheering loudly. It was really frantic.”

The positive reception prompted work on a free update for the title with a new environment, adversaries, plus epic encounters, which they said will release within the “upcoming month[s]”.

Nevertheless, as the title expands, don’t expect they'll hire extensively. Our team includes a great team with a strong creative director possessing strong ideas for this game plus upcoming innovations. We'd like to keep the human scale that worked for this game and do maybe one big game after another,” the producer said.

The size of Sandfall drummed up a storm of discussion upon the title's release. Certain industry figures, including renowned designers, considered the development group as the model for creative teams. While Sandfall was and is relatively lean next to major studios, a quick look at the game's credits shows that many individuals worked on it; Sandfall contracted a Korean team handling movement and effects, as an instance.

“We plan to recruit slightly more for sure should there be an increase in development in upcoming years,” they said. “But I would see essentially a craft studio comprising a handful exceptionally gifted creators that create artistic collaborations.” They emphasized that Sandfall’s vision as a studio “is more to maintain the successful elements that made this achievement possible from the start.”

Although it's too early for Sandfall to disclose concrete plans what’s next — and trust me, efforts were made — they are certain what’s at its core. “Strategic combat, forms the foundation of what we built,” the lead programmer remarked. “The timing isn't right to specify what will interest us, however, it's crucial to stay true to our creative core with [a] strong narrative universe and the interesting gameplay that drives our passion.”

They mentioned that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 originated from their director pursuing his ideal project. It is hoped this approach will be repeated as well for future productions.”