Despite Massive Success, Clair Obscur Creators Intend to Maintain Team Compact
The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a top Game of the Year candidate, it’s also a massive commercial success. Studio the development team and publisher their publishing partner announced that this title exceeded five million copies sold, this is despite it being a day-one release through the Game Pass service.
Its success was a shock to the developers. I was convinced that we would have a solid title garnering reasonable sales results,” the COO and producer explained.
The CTO and lead programmer remarked this title's review aggregate, which currently sits at 93, came as perhaps the greatest surprise” to the studio versus what we anticipated and the final result of the field was. When the score released the entire team were cheering loudly. It was really frantic.”
The positive reception prompted work on new free content for players featuring fresh areas, foes, plus epic encounters, reportedly will release sometime soon.
Nevertheless, despite the game's evolution, fans shouldn't anticipate they'll hire extensively. Our team includes a talented crew under clear creative leadership with a clear direction for this game and future concepts. We'd like to keep the close-knit size that made this possible and do maybe large projects one by one,” the executive noted.
The studio's scale sparked significant conversation upon the title's release. A few well-known creators, such as the famed director, looked at this studio as the model for creative teams. While Sandfall was and is relatively lean compared to its AAA counterparts, one glance at the title's staff list indicates numerous contributors were involved; the French studio partnered with overseas animators for animation work, for example.
“We will hire slightly more certainly if we have next an upcoming production peak in the coming years,” the producer said. “However, I envision rather a creative atelier with a small number of exceptionally gifted creators that can make artistic collaborations.” He noted that their core belief as a company “focuses on preserving the successful elements that led to this accomplishment in the first place.”
While it may be too early for Sandfall to disclose concrete plans about future projects — and trust me, efforts were made — they are certain what’s at its core. “Strategic combat, forms the foundation of what we built,” the lead programmer said. “It's still premature to be able to tell future passions, but it's important also to adhere to the DNA of studio with [a] strong narrative universe plus innovative play that excites us.”
The lead programmer mentioned that the project started with the creative director pursuing his ideal project. It is hoped that's something we will be able to do with upcoming games.”