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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a top Game of the Year candidate, it’s also a huge sales triumph. Developer the development team and publisher Kepler Interactive announced that this title topped 5 million units sold, this is in spite of its status as a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

The game's performance came as quite a shock to the developers. I firmly believed that we would have an enjoyable experience achieving moderate market performance,” a senior team member commented.

The CTO and lead programmer noted the game's critical score, now standing at 93, was the most surprising moment for everyone relative to our early predictions and the actual outcome of the field was. Because when it dropped the entire team was screaming and jumping. The energy was electric.”

The positive reception prompted the studio creating a complimentary expansion for players with a new environment, foes, and boss fights, which they said will release sometime soon.

Nevertheless, while the game is growing, don’t expect they'll hire extensively. “We have a great team guided by a visionary director who has a great vision for the project and also for new ideas. Our goal is to maintain the close-knit size that led to our success and do maybe large projects one by one,” the producer said.

The size of Sandfall sparked plenty of debate upon the title's release. A few well-known creators, like Hideo Kojima, viewed Sandfall’s team as a perfect example for creative teams. Despite being truly compact versus large developers, checking the title's staff list reveals dozens of people participated; the French studio contracted a Korean team handling movement and effects, to illustrate.

“We will hire slightly more for sure if we have an increase in development down the line,” the producer stated. “Yet I picture rather a creative atelier with a small number of exceptionally gifted creators that can make a work of art together.” It was stated that their core belief as a company “is more to maintain the strengths that led to this accomplishment originally.”

Although it's premature for the studio to say specifically what’s next — believe me, efforts were made — the team does know their fundamental principles. “Strategic combat, forms the foundation of this project,” they remarked. “It's still premature to announce our next interests, however, it's crucial to stay true to our creative core featuring rich storytelling and engaging mechanics that inspires the team.”

The developer mentioned how this game originated from the visionary developing his passion title. It is hoped that philosophy we can continue as well for future productions.”