Don’t Hold Your Breath For A Dead By Daylight Sequel

Dead by Daylight turns 10 years old today, June 14. The asymmetrical horror multiplayer game has been leading the pack since its debut, helping popularize the genre that has grown into a (haunted) cottage industry over the course of that decade. What began as a 4v1 game of horror-movie homages has grown into a horror museum of sorts, playing host to dozens of licensed collaborations with iconic horror staples like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Ringu, and The Walking Dead, as well as many striking original characters. 

Ahead of DBD's anniversary celebration, I caught up with some members of the Behaviour Interactive team to discuss all they've revealed today, which includes things like a new liminal-space map, overhauls to both gameplay and visuals, and a zombie mode. But one thing not in the works, the team told me, is Dead by Daylight 2. 

"We think the answer is 'no,'" executive producer Jose Ramos told me. "Of course, you never say never about anything, but we are confident that the answer is no. [We're] making sure that we're expanding our efforts in order to reinvest in the game where it deserves to have strong investment being done. [We want to] make sure that we have a team that has time to think about DBD, and which doesn't have to run, run, run, because running a live-service game is tough, right? The content cadence, etc.

"So we are making sure that those teams have time to breathe, have time to think, that they can take the time to design properly, and build the technical foundations that are going to offer them more tools and more possibilities. If we were ever to create a DBD 2, it will play differently, for sure. It will be different, it will feel different, and that's not something that we really want--for our players to just lose that feeling of home."

Instead of a sequel, Behaviour Interactive feels it can just keep growing DBD itself, so players never have to start over.

Building on a game now a decade old does come with limitations, but creative director Dave Richard says the team doesn't take DBD's success for granted, and in lieu of a sequel, the team would sooner look to add new game modes to DBD as well as new games within the DBD universe that aren't a sequel. 

"Oh, there's a challenge that comes with it, but we're grateful to have it. It's so precious, so it's not something that's holding us to the ground; it's helping us reach these new places. I would imagine a Dead by Daylight universe game that's not DBD 2, but that is something completely different that can live within this universe rather than doing a sequel," Richard continued. "And then in the Dead by Daylight ecosystem that exists right now, the core game can scale and become multiple other scenarios and multiple other ways to play inside that universe without us having to ever request the players buy DBD again, start from scratch, reinvest their time. We want to respect that, and [DBD's foundation] doesn't stop us from doing anything really."

Behaviour revealed a lot more about its trailblazing horror multiplayer game during a 10th-anniversary stream. You can see everything announced for Dead by Daylight here, as well as learn why DBD has gotten more violent over the years.