Dead by Daylight Studio Lays Off 45 People

January is barely half over and things are once again looking bleak for those in the video game industry, as Dead by daylight loses staff. On top of Unity laying off a quarter of its workforce, 2024 is already seeing thousands lose their jobs.

More than 3,100, to be precise

According to a recent tweet from Kotaku, Behavior Interactive – the team behind the popular asymmetric co-op survival horror game – has laid off 45 of its employees. This affected the company's Montreal branch, and layoffs were noted in several departments.

All this according to “people with knowledge of the situation” who contacted the publication. These sources indicate that Dead by Daylight team personnel were laid off between January 9 and 11.

A Kotaku report presented the studios that have already been laid off since the start of the new year. With Twitch and Discord staff affected, even gaming-adjacent industries are not safe. Currently, an estimated 3,172 people have become unemployed.

Just three weeks into 2024, the forecasts so far don't bode well for the next 11 months or so. Behavior Interactive has not made a statement on the recent layoffs as of this writing.

Dead by daylight has become something of a phenomenon in the horror community, especially among streamers. With its “survivors versus killers” mechanics – and the game updated to include villains, monsters and heroes from well-known franchises – the game has been quite successful since its launch in 2016.