Clair Obscur: Expedition 33has hit 500,000 copies sold in less than a day of its release, marking it as a breakaway success and prompting fans to make comparisons to similar reports from a bigger studio. The RPG has captured fans with its story and setting, quickly earning a large fanbase despite being Sandfall Interactive’s first game.
TheExpedition 33X account shared that ithit the milestone of half a million copies sold on April 25, one day after the game officially released. “A milestone for us, reached sooner than we’d ever imagined,” writes the post, adding, “Thank you all.” Amid the well-wishes and congratulations shared in the comments are many jabs at Ubisoft for using “players reached” as a metric in place of the more meaningful and accurate “copies sold.”
Expedition 33 Fans Point Out The Importance Of Being Upfront About Sales Numbers
Fans Use The Indie Game’s Success To Call Out Ubisoft
SinceClair Obscur: Expedition 33andAssassin’s Creed: Shadowshave little in common,the comments to the X post may leave some people confused. Interspersed between the congratulatory remarks are comments like that of X userGeneticSpore, who tags theAssassin’s CreedX account and comments: “See? 500k copies. Not ‘players.'”
The barbs aimed at Ubisoft are in response to the company’s report thatAssassin’s Creed: Shadows, which released on March 20 this year, hit “2 million players” two days after release, according to theAssassin’s CreedX account. Manyfans called Ubisoft out for being misleadingand sharing only how many players have access to or simply tried the game through Ubisoft’s game subscription, rather than how many purchased it.
In contrast,Expedition 33is reporting specifically “copies sold,” a much more meaningful metric that shows how many people wanted to play the game enough to actually purchase it. In fact, although the new title sold over half a million,its number of players is likely much higherthanks to the game being aday-one release on the Xbox Games Pass. Fans in the comments make it clear that they appreciate seeing the real success of breakaway hits likeExpedition 33, which many say is well deserving of the success.
Expedition 33 Wins Over More Than Half A Million Fans
The Game Brings A Unique Twist To RPGs
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Sandfall Interactive’s debut game,places players in a world inspired by late-1800s Franceon a mission to hunt down and destroy the mysterious death-bringing Paintress. The game is “a heartfelt love letter to RPGs past,” according toScreen Rant’s review of the titleby Lee D’Amato.
The game combines elements from other RPGs and JRPGs, merging turn-based battles with real-time mechanics in a way that D’Amato describes ascombining old-style battles with the newer mechanics of Soulslike games:
Clair Obscur employs a turn-based combat system that also draws on the dodge and parry systems of From Software games like Dark Souls and Sekiro.
The unique style and premise of the title work in tandem with an engaging battle system and stellar storytelling to keep players engaged. The numbers don’t lie: 500,000 copies sold within hours of the release ofClair Obscur: Expedition 33puts Sandfall Interactive on the map as a developer to watch in the future.
