Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has quickly turned into one of the breakout success stories of the year, racking up major awards attention and strong sales. In today’s games industry, that kind of momentum usually comes with a familiar next step: hiring sprees, rapid growth, and an inevitable pivot toward “bigger and more.”

But Sandfall Interactive doesn’t sound interested in playing that game. Despite Expedition 33’s high-profile wins and commercial traction, the studio has indicated it isn’t looking to aggressively expand its headcount or transform into a larger operation.

### A Deliberate Choice to Stay Small
Rather than chasing scale for scale’s sake, Sandfall’s stance suggests a desire to protect its creative process and avoid the management bloat that can come with fast growth. For many teams, suddenly doubling in size can introduce new layers of approval, longer production cycles, and a drift away from the tight, opinionated vision that made a project stand out in the first place.

This approach also reflects a growing awareness of how volatile “Big Business” strategies have become in games. Across the industry, rapid expansion has often been followed by painful contractions—layoffs, cancelled projects, and studios forced into prioritizing predictable monetization over experimentation.

### What It Means for Players and the Industry
For players, Sandfall’s refusal to scale up could be good news if it keeps the studio’s next project cohesive and avoids the quality dips that sometimes follow a sudden growth phase. The tradeoff, of course, is that a smaller team can only ship content so fast—so expectations for massive, rapid follow-ups may need to be tempered.

Bigger-picture, it’s a noteworthy counter-signal in a market where success is frequently met with pressure to become a franchise factory. If Expedition 33’s momentum can be sustained without turning Sandfall into a sprawling publisher-like machine, it may offer a healthier model for mid-sized studios trying to survive—and thrive—without burning out.

Source: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/amongst-all-the-success-clair-obscur-expedition-33-studio-sandfall-interactive-isnt-interested-in-expansion