In spite of Runaway Success, Expedition 33 Creators Aim to Maintain Team Small

The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a top Game of the Year candidate, it’s also a massive financial hit. Developer Sandfall Interactive along with publisher their publishing partner disclosed that the game topped five million copies in sales, and that’s in spite of its status as a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

Its success came as quite a surprise to Sandfall. I firmly believed that we would have a good game achieving some average commercial success,” a key executive explained.

A technical director pointed out that Clair Obscur’s Metacritic rating, which currently sits at 93, was the greatest surprise” for everyone versus our early predictions and the actual outcome of the field was. When the score released the entire team celebrated excitedly. It felt absolutely wild.”

This triumph prompted work on a free update for players featuring fresh areas, adversaries, and boss fights, which they said would be out within the “upcoming month[s]”.

Nevertheless, as the title expands, it's unlikely the studio to grow. “We have a great team guided by a visionary director with a clear direction for the project and future concepts. We'd like to keep the close-knit size that worked for this game then develop one big game after another,” the executive said.

The size of Sandfall drummed up plenty of debate upon the title's release. Certain industry figures, including renowned designers, looked at this studio as a perfect example for creative teams. While Sandfall was and is relatively lean next to major studios, a quick look at the title's staff list shows that many individuals worked on it; Sandfall hired a team in Korea for animation work, to illustrate.

“We will hire slightly more for sure when facing next an upcoming production peak in upcoming years,” they said. “However, I envision rather a creative atelier comprising a handful exceptionally gifted creators that can make collective masterpieces.” They emphasized that their core belief as a company “aims to keep the strengths that enabled this success from the start.”

While it may be not the right time to disclose concrete plans about future projects — and trust me, I attempted to learn more — the developers understand what’s at its core. “Strategic combat, is integral to our identity of our creations,” they explained. “It's a bit too early to announce our next interests, but it's important also to remain faithful to our creative core featuring rich storytelling and the interesting gameplay that inspires the team.”

They added that the project originated from their director pursuing his ideal project. We aspire that philosophy we can continue with upcoming games.”