Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was one of 2025’s biggest breakout hits, and the game’s commercial success has afforded developer Sandfall Interactive the opportunity to scale up for its next project. However, the company is not going to do that–and for what sounds like a good reason.
Speaking to Edge, studio boss Guillaume Broche said he does not feel tempted to grow the company in the wake of the success of Expedition 33, which was the studio’s debut title. Why not? He said (via GI.biz), “I think it’s good to have limitations when you are creative.”
“It’s the best way to be the best version of yourself. We could scale up now we have a lot more money, but I would say it’s not tempting for us, because even the management team and myself, we’d have to be hands-on and doing things for ourselves,” he said. “We love making games more than we love managing, so we want to keep doing that. These past five years were some of the best of my life, and I want to be happy like that again.”
He went on to say that his philosophy is to “adapt the game to the team, and not the other way around.” He said Sandfall’s ambition with Expedition 33 was to make a game its developers wanted to play.
“It’s making a game that you want to play. It’s contradictory, but [try to] not care too much about the players, because if you care about your game, it means you care about the players ultimately,” he said. “The best way for me to care about people is to make something that is sincere. If it feels human, [even] if there are little flaws here and there, it’s forgivable. It just has to have a strong soul and identity.”
Expedition 33 sold more than 5 million copies and won numerous awards. This included a record nine wins at The Game Awards, including overall Game of the Year.
The game was recently embroiled in controversy, as The Indie Game Awards revoked its Game of the Year win due to AI concerns. The game also courted some controversy over its designation as an “independent” game. Its success also inspired people to see hope for the future when it comes to lower-budget games finding success in a market dominated by many expensive sequels.
Sandfall has not said what it will make next, but it will have very big shoes to fill given the immense critical and commercial success of Expedition 33. GameSpot named Expedition 33 our Game of the Year.
