Dead by Daylight Devs Talk Spinoff Hopes and Dreams: ‘I Want Elden Ring in the World of Dead by Daylight’

If Dead by Daylight is known for something, it’s probably for its incredible cross-media powers. Over the last decade, the asymmetrical multiplayer horror game has both welcomed dozens upon dozens of in-game crossovers, and Dead by Daylight itself has been taken in a number of fun new directions including a dating sim, a choice-focused story game, comics, a board game, and even an upcoming film. It’s done it all!

Well, almost all. I had the pleasure of recently asking Dead by Daylight’s creative director Dave Richard and Behaviour Interactive’s head of partnerships Mathieu Cote if there were any stones left unturned for spinoffs that they wanted to see happen. And Richard has one specific idea in mind: a soulslike. Elden Ring, but Dead by Daylight.

This comes from an interview I conducted at the Game Developers Conference last month, where I spoke to Richard and Cote on a number of topics, including DBD’s many crossovers and spinoffs. When I asked them about their spinoff white whales, Cote mentioned the already-announced movie with Blumhouse and Atomic Monster, though he said since he’s never made a movie before, he doesn’t know how long is a normal amount of time for one to take.

“I would absolutely love, being able to go to the movie theater and sit down and watch a Dead by Daylight movie.”

He also referenced Hooked on You, the Dead by Daylight dating simulator spinoff, and an ongoing comic series. And the team isn’t done. “There’s going to be more and more of these things, because it’s super interesting. Even just as a huge nerd to see talented people who are very good at the medium you don’t know, show you what you’ve inspired them to do, and that’s pretty cool.”

But it was Richard who had the real wishing star: he wants Elden Ring, Dead by Daylight style.

“I want a DBD Souls game,” he said. “That’s all I want. I want like Elden Ring in the world of DBD. That would be cool.”

And to demonstrate how much that idea seems to be on his mind, he brought it up again later when I asked the pair where they saw Dead by Daylight in ten more years. Richard began by saying he hoped they’d be celebrating an anniversary and planinng for 20 more years down the road. He continued:

“I’m proud of what we’ve built, and I believe in this universe we’ve built, and I think we’re barely scratched the surface of who could be interesting in that universe. And we talked about all of the other side projects. There’s not just the core game, right? There’s been mobile for a little while, there is a specific market, but then there’s other experiences, Elden Ring, Souls, DBD that we could do, or whatever it is, that can bring some people into our stories. And I think that’s how we scale up in time. We have 70 million people that play currently, and I mean, we want a billion eventually. Bare minimum.”

So, you heard the man. By 2036, a billion Dead by Daylight players, and some of them are playing Elden by Daylight or Dead Souls or something. It’s not impossible to imagine. Dead by Daylight could certainly fit into a Soulslike gameplay genre with the right mix of ideas, and even the tone of the Souls series isn’t that far away from Dead by Daylight’s style of horror. You know what, sure! I’m into it.

I spoke to these two about other topics at GDC such as what makes a successful live service game, why there won’t be a Dead by Daylight 2, and more. You can read the full Q&A right here.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].