In spite of Overwhelming Achievement, Clair Obscur Developers Intend to Keep Studio Small

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a strong Game of the Year candidate, but also a huge commercial success. Studio the development team along with publisher their publishing partner revealed that this title topped five million copies sold, this is in spite of its status as a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.

The game's performance was an unexpected turn to the developers. I was convinced that we'd create a good game achieving some average sales results,” a senior team member explained.

Another leading developer pointed out that Clair Obscur’s Metacritic rating, rated 93 by critics, was “maybe the biggest shock to the team compared to “our initial expectations and the actual outcome proved to be. Once it was published everybody in the studio were cheering loudly. It was really frantic.”

The positive reception prompted Sandfall developing a complimentary expansion for players with a new environment, foes, plus epic encounters, reportedly is coming within the “upcoming month[s]”.

However, despite the game's evolution, don’t expect they'll hire extensively. “We have a great team under clear creative leadership with a clear direction for our work and also for new ideas. We'd like to keep the human scale that made this possible and perhaps create large projects one by one,” they added.

The size of Sandfall sparked plenty of debate upon the title's release. A few well-known creators, such as the famed director, looked at this studio as the “ideal” for a studio. While Sandfall was and is indeed a small team versus large developers, checking the title's staff list shows that dozens of people were involved; the French studio hired a team in Korea to work on gameplay animations, to illustrate.

“Some hiring will occur a little more for sure should there be an increase in development in the coming years,” the producer said. “Yet I picture more of a workshop comprising a handful exceptionally gifted creators capable of producing artistic collaborations.” They emphasized that the studio's philosophy as a company “is more to maintain the successful elements that led to this accomplishment originally.”

Although it's too early for Sandfall to reveal exact details what’s next — and trust me, I attempted to learn more — the developers understand their fundamental principles. “The turn-based aspect, I think it's in the DNA of what we built,” they said. “It's a bit too early to announce future passions, but it's important also to remain faithful to the DNA of studio featuring rich storytelling and the interesting gameplay that inspires the team.”

The developer added how this game began with their director developing his passion title. And hopefully that philosophy we can continue with upcoming games.”