Capcom struck gold withResident Evilin 1996, a tense survival horror game that set the standard for the industry. Its franchise has continued to this day with a variety of critically acclaimed and beloved entries - and it spawned a multimedia empire that includes a long-running film franchise by Paul W.S. Anderson which will soon be rebooted. For its 25th anniversary,Capcom releasedResident Evil Villageto great successand has other projects in the works, such as the animated Netflix seriesResident Evil: Infinite Darkness. Behaviour Interactive’sDead by Daylightis also getting in on the celebration.
Dead by Daylightis an asymmetrical horror game that pits one Killer against four Survivors in a nightmarish cat-and-mouse pursuit. The game began by paying homage to horror media tropes before snowballing its success by partnering with its sources of inspiration:Halloween,Nightmare on Elm Street,Scream, and more. For its fifth anniversaryDead by Daylightis adding content based on the recentResident Evil 2and3remakes, and creative director Dave Richard said this will honorResident Evil’s anniversary while introducing the series into Behaviour’s “horror hall of fame.” Game Rant attended a press event leading up toDead by Daylight’s fifth anniversary reveal livestream Tuesday and found out more about how this crossover came to be.
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“I’m super excited. I’ve been playing these games all my teens, I grew up with them. They’re an influence, so it’s absolutely amazing that this is happening.”
The Raccoon City Police Department map and Survivor Leon Kennedy fromResident Evil 2 Remake; as well as the Killer Nemesis and SurvivorJill Valentine fromResident Evil 3 Remake; will be officially added toDead by Daylightin Chapter 20 on June 15. Richard said Behaviour worked with Capcom in deciding what from its storied history would be best for the multiplayer game, and to Behaviour it was “important to have what is considered ‘classic’ in the world ofResident Evil.” It feels these older characters and stories have lingered in peoples' imaginations and wanted to hit on those memories.
When asked why Jill and Leon were specifically chosen as opposed to less-combatant Survivor options such as Claire Redfield fromResident Evil 2 Remake, Richard said it was important they draw from multiple entries equally rather than concentrating on one. This philosophy was reflected last year whenDead by Daylightintroduced content from Konami’sSilent Hillfranchise: the map Midwich Elementary School fromSilent Hill, the Killer Pyramid Head fromSilent Hill 2, and the Survivor Cheryl Mason fromSilent Hill 3.
“We’re super excited to welcome this legendary content inside our universe. Its really been a dream come true to work with such an amazing franchise.”
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Compared toResident Evil, which has had a successful string of releases over the past few years leading up to its 25th anniversary,Silent Hillhas been a considerably quiet franchise since thecancellation of Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro’sSilent Hillsin 2015. That being said, Behaviour Interactive CMO David Reid drew no significant difference between working with Capcom versus Konami. “They’re both legendary franchises, they’re both great developers and publishers,” he said. “It has been awesome for us to be able to work with these iconic properties. They’ve both been great partners.”
AddingResident Evilcontent intoDead by Daylighton their respective 25th and fifth anniversaries seems like a match made in heaven, but Reid said his team could not go into detail about which studio approached the other. He said the scaleDead by Daylighthas grown to over the past five years means Behaviour talks with a lot of companies, though it’s hard to imagine how much larger the game can go after taking part in Capcom’s quarter-century celebration.
Dead by Daylightis available now on Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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