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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just an impressive GOTY candidate, but also an enormous sales triumph. Studio Sandfall Interactive along with publisher their publishing partner revealed that this title surpassed five million copies sold, and that’s even with its status as a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.

Its success was an unexpected turn to the developers. I was convinced that we'd create an enjoyable experience achieving reasonable sales results,” a key executive commented.

The CTO and lead programmer noted that Clair Obscur’s critical score, rated 93 by critics, came as perhaps the greatest surprise” to the studio compared to what we anticipated and the actual outcome turned out to be. When the score released the entire team was screaming and jumping. The energy was electric.”

The positive reception resulted in the studio creating a free update for the title with a new environment, enemies, and boss fights, which they said will release within the “upcoming month[s]”.

However, while the game is growing, fans shouldn't anticipate the team will expand. We've built an excellent group guided by a visionary director who has a great vision for this game and also for new ideas. We intend to preserve the close-knit size that made this possible then develop large projects one by one,” they added.

The size of Sandfall generated plenty of debate upon the title's release. Some developers, such as the famed director, looked at Sandfall’s team as the model for game development. Despite being relatively lean next to major studios, a quick look at the game's credits reveals dozens of people participated; Sandfall contracted a Korean team for animation work, to illustrate.

“We plan to recruit slightly more for sure if we have an increase in development down the line,” the producer stated. “Yet I picture rather a creative atelier of a few highly skilled individuals that create collective masterpieces.” He noted that their core belief as developers “aims to keep the successful elements that made this achievement possible originally.”

While it may be too early for Sandfall to reveal exact details regarding upcoming titles — rest assured, efforts were made — the developers understand their fundamental principles. “The turn-based aspect, forms the foundation of what we built,” the lead programmer explained. “It's still premature to be able to tell future passions, yet we must to stay true to our studio's essence with [a] strong narrative universe and engaging mechanics that drives our passion.”

The developer noted that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 originated from the visionary pursuing his ideal project. It is hoped this approach we will be able to do as well for future productions.”