The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just an impressive Game of the Year contender, it’s also a huge sales triumph. Studio Sandfall Interactive along with publisher Kepler Interactive announced that the game exceeded five million copies in sales, this is even with its status as a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.
Its success came as an unexpected turn to Sandfall. “I was strongly believing that we would have a solid title that would meet reasonable commercial success,” the COO and producer commented.
Another leading developer pointed out the game's review aggregate, which currently sits at 93, came as “maybe the biggest shock to the studio relative to what we anticipated and the final result turned out to be. When the score released everybody in the studio was screaming and jumping. It was really frantic.”
The positive reception resulted in Sandfall developing a free update for the title including novel settings, adversaries, plus epic encounters, as announced will release sometime soon.
That said, despite the game's evolution, don’t expect the studio to grow. Our team includes an excellent group guided by a visionary director possessing strong ideas for the project plus upcoming innovations. We intend to preserve the small-team dynamic that led to our success and perhaps create major titles sequentially,” the executive noted.
The studio's scale drummed up plenty of debate upon the title's release. Certain industry figures, including renowned designers, viewed this studio as the “ideal” for game development. Although the team is and was relatively lean versus large developers, one glance at the game's credits reveals dozens of people worked on it; the French studio partnered with overseas animators for animation work, as an instance.
“We will hire slightly more for sure should there be next an upcoming production peak in the coming years,” the executive said. “Yet I picture essentially a craft studio with a small number of exceptionally gifted creators that create a work of art together.” They emphasized that the studio's philosophy as a studio “focuses on preserving the key advantages that enabled this success originally.”
Although it's too early for Sandfall to disclose concrete plans what’s next — believe me, efforts were made — the team does know their essential identity. “Strategic combat, I think it's in the DNA of our creations,” a developer said. “The timing isn't right to specify future passions, yet we must to stay true to our creative core featuring rich storytelling and engaging mechanics that drives our passion.”
The developer added how this game originated from the visionary “work[ing] on his dream game. And hopefully this approach will be repeated in coming projects.”
