Dead By Daylight developers Behaviour acquire Darkest Dungeon developers Red Hook

Dead By Daylight developers Behaviour Interactive have announced that they’re acquiring Red Hook, the creators of Darkest Dungeon. This is the same Behaviour Interactive who recently laid off a bunch of peoplecancelled a game and closed a studio, Midwinter Entertainment, after bagging themselves a bunch of developers (the others are SockMonkey, Codeglue and Fly Studio) over the past two years. Darkest Dungeon is a horror game like DBD, so I guess the acquisition chimes from that perspective. All the same, my snap judgement is “yikes”.

Red Hook will remain “a fully independent studio” under Behaviour, according to a definition of “independent” that has yet to be shared in full. “Darkest Dungeon has long been a series we’ve admired, enjoyed (and maybe even lost a little sleep over) as fans, and the opportunity to welcome Red Hook as a fully independent studio under the Behaviour banner is nothing short of a thrill,” reads a statement on social media. “We look forward to supporting Red Hook as they continue to do what they do best: put your sanity to the test.”

In a separate release, Behaviour CEO and co-founder Rémi Racine characterised the move as, essentially, a corporate exercise in adopting a fresh child because your festering, stay-at-home, gimlet-eye son needs a new playmate, bless him. “Earlier this year, we established an ambitious goal for our future as a publisher – to make Behaviour synonymous with horror, and surround Dead by Daylight with a library of similarly exceptional horror games,” he wrote. “Our acquisition of Red Hook is another emphatic step towards this objective, with more to come.”

‘Surrounds’, eh? I’d keep your distance, Red Hook. If there’s one thing Dead By Daylight is known for, it’s cannibalising characters from other horror fictions. They said the Alien couldn’t be tamed, Red Hook. I give it two months before the Entity abducts Wayne June and turns him into DLC.

Red Hook themselves seem happy with the arrangement, as you’d expect. In the same press release, co-founder Chris Bourassa described Behaviour as “kindred spirits”because “both studios are Canadian, independent, and devoted to fantastic horror games”.

“The benefit from Red Hook’s Where we differ is scale, which opens the door to new possibilities,” Bourassa added. “Behaviour’s support will help us pursue our vision for Red Hook’s future, and focus fully on transforming Darkest Dungeon into an absolute juggernaut of the dark fantasy genre.”

Again, I’m not clear on how the ‘independence’ thing works here in practice – what will Behaviour do, besides providing development funds? They’ve confirmed that all 29 of Red Hook’s existing team have been retained, at least.

Acquisitions aside, Red Hook are currently working on a kingdom-sized expansion for Darkest Dungeon 2 that turns it into a turn-based boardgame.