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‘Dead by Daylight’ Had A Very Impressive Launch
There really is an audience for asymmetrical multiplayer games inspired by the slasher film genre, and it’s enormous. To say the 4v1 horror game Dead by Daylight wasted no time conquering the Steam sales chart to become a bonafide hit for Behaviour Digital and its publishing partner Starbreeze wouldn’t adequately reflect what this game has achieved in its first week on Steam. Numbers are usually more effective at that, and in that case, we know it’s blown past the staggering 270,000 sales figure that was mentioned in this morning’s press release.
There’s another way to measure its success, and it’s simple. Dead by Daylight is in the black. Its development costs have been fully recouped, so it’s essentially free to continue making loads of cash until the (suddenly very likely) sequel comes to replace it. Only time will tell if its runaway success will benefit the competition — Friday the 13th: The Game in October, followed by Last Year in November — or if it’s set a stratospherically high bar they might have trouble reaching in the fall.
We’ll save that discussion for another time. For now, let’s celebrate another victory for the horror genre. And if you’re still on the fence about adding to that sales figure, Dead by Daylight is $17.99 on Steam (10% off) until July 4.
Now for the obligatory statements of congratulation…
“We couldn’t be happier to release Dead by Daylight as our first publishing partnership together with Behaviour,” said Starbreeze CEO Bo Andersson Klint. “With this launch, we’ve proven that the concept we’ve developed with our own PAYDAY-franchise, can be replicated and utilized for other games. Taking the game to different events and seeing it on the top 5 most streamed titles on Twitch has been a thrill and a real ticket to the games success as a spectator friendly game. We look forward to seeing the game evolve and thrive in the community.”
“Our partnership with Starbreeze has been a great fit from the get go, they believed in our vision and gave us the creative freedom and support needed to make a massive statement out of the gate,” added Rémi Racine, CEO of Behaviour Interactive. “Behaviour Digital is a new studio where we invest in our own future, with Dead by Daylight being our first release, we couldn’t be prouder; we have been developing concepts around this theme for many years now and it’s great to trail blaze in this space. From the beginning, we conceived Dead by Daylight to be a community focused game, but the engagement from our players has been fantastic.”
Sam Neill, the New Zealand actor best known for his role in 1993’s Jurassic Park, has passed away this week at 78 years old. In a statement shared on Neill’s Instagram page this morning, the actor’s family said that his passing was “sudden and unexpected.”
Neill had been diagnosed with a rare blood cancer in 2022, but stated the following year that he was in remission. The family notes that he “remained cancer free” at the time of his passing.
The family statement reads, “It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia. Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life. The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free.
“They would like to express their deepest gratitude to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care. More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss.”
In addition to his iconic role as Dr. Alan Grant in the original Jurassic Park and the sequels Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World: Dominion, Sam Neill left an indelible mark on the horror genre with memorable roles in Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession, The Omen: The Final Conflict, John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness, and sci-fi horror favorite Event Horizon.
Sam Neill’s vast resume in film and television began in the early 1970s and also includes the films Sleeping Dogs, Enigma, The Good Wife, A Cry in the Dark, Dead Calm, The Hunt for Red October, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Hostage, The Jungle Book, Snow White: A Tale of Terror, The Horse Whisperer, Bicentennial Man, Daybreakers, Escape Plan, and Thor: Ragnarok.
Sam Neill is survived by his four children and eight grandchildren.
Steven Spielberg said in a statement to Variety, “I owe a debt of gratitude to Roger Donaldson, Gilliam Armstrong, Graham Baker and Phillip Noyce for casting Sam Neill in the roles in which he was so brilliant that brought him to my attention and led to his playing Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park. Sam was exceptionally collaborative. It was a stretch for him to play a character who acted as though children were messy and smelly because this was the opposite of the loving father he was to his children. I adored making all the Jurassic movies with him.”
Spielberg adds, “Along with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, we will always have our Jurassic family and Sam will never be forgotten by us or his many millions of fans around the world.”
Sam Neill in ‘Event Horizon’
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