Cortyn is once again getting upset about Dead by Daylight. No surprise, as the same mistakes are being made over and over again.
My love-hate relationship with Dead by Daylight has been expressed many times, but currently there is another major issue brewing in the community. I want to take the boycott of Dead by Daylight as an opportunity to explain a bit why Dead by Daylight can afford so many blunders. With each DLC, the game keeps making the same mistakes and takes forever to fix them. The problems include:
- Bugs with newly released killers
- 6 -12 months waiting time until critical issues are fixed
- A continually growing grind for newcomers
- Recurring bugs that return every few patches
- Poor matchmaking
- Battle passes that are filled with more and more boring stuff
- Close to unplayability on old consoles (PS4 and Xbox One)
The current state after the release of the “Resident Evil” chapter is so bad that the developers have disabled the “Disconnect penalty”. Anyone who leaves a match early is usually temporarily banned for a few minutes – the time increases the more often one disconnects. However, since Dead by Daylight is currently in such an unstable state that disconnects due to technical issues occur more frequently, the penalty has been disabled.
This leads to the “great” effect that players are also more likely to disconnect if they are found first as survivors or are blinded too often as killers with the flashlight.
Disconnecting is currently “in” again and ruins the fun for everyone who wants to play fairly.
Furthermore, the current content from Resident Evil is practically nonexistent – the new map is still disabled even 2 weeks after launch.
Don’t get me wrong. I really like Dead by Daylight, even though for a long time it was just a substitute for Evolve for me. If I didn’t like Dead by Daylight, I definitely wouldn’t have put in over 2,500 hours into the game and I certainly wouldn’t still be playing it for several hours each week at night. To be honest, I’m currently waiting for a full lobby while writing this article.
But it is simply a shame that Dead by Daylight gets away with all of this. For years, players have been demanding fewer large patches and a stronger focus on improving game quality.
But that is missing.
Why can Dead by Daylight get away with everything?
This is not a particularly difficult question to answer, although there are quite a few reasons for it.
The most important reason is probably: Dead by Daylight holds a monopoly. Sure, there are a few other asymmetric games, but most are more like small passion projects, cater to a different target audience, or are simply not polished enough.
A few years ago, it seemed like Dead by Daylight had gotten a real competitor. With “Friday the 13th the Game”, there was a strong license that wanted a share of the horror-slasher pie – but that fizzled out. At launch, the game was very bugged, and as soon as one recovered from that, there was a nasty lawsuit over the brand that the original author claimed for himself. Development had to be halted, and the game is practically dead.
In the future, the game “Evil Dead” could potentially become a serious competitor for Dead by Daylight. Although there are only a few early trailers so far, the direction seems to be similar. What is a bit ironic, though, is that Ash Williams, the main character from “Evil Dead” is also a playable character in Dead by Daylight.
But even more makes Dead by Daylight untouchable, no matter how annoying the bugs are. The strong licenses. That Dead by Daylight was able to secure Michael Myers and Laurie Strode from the “Halloween” franchise very early on must have helped a lot in obtaining further licenses later. Just think about which well-known horror icons are now all involved:
- Freddy Krueger (Nightmare on Elm Street)
- Bubba Sawyer (Texas Chainsaw Massacre)
- Amanda Young (SAW)
- Ghost Face (Scream)
- Pyramid Head (Silent Hill)
- the Demogorgon (Stranger Things)
- Nemesis (Resident Evil)
Dead by Daylight is basically the “Super Smash Bros” of horror games. More and more franchises only strengthen this position further, enhance the untouchability and simultaneously make the game more attractive for other franchises. Because who wouldn’t want to see their killer among these legends?
The success also justifies the developers. The numbers on Steam are regularly increasing. While there are always short spikes upwards with a new chapter followed by a slight decline – the trend over the last few years is, however, a consistent upward.
And that annoys me immensely. The game needs a serious wake-up call. Dead by Daylight keeps making the same mistakes, bringing the same bugs, and clinging to outdated mechanics – like the endless blood web grind for perks. The community has made countless suggestions for improvements that would objectively contribute to a better game – most of them just fizzle out. Sometimes you get a “Yes, we are working on it,” only to hear nothing more for 2 years.
Because I care so much about the game – and I just had to restart the game for the second time this evening due to a crash – I think the “DeadByBoycott” idea is really good. Just spend no money in the game for 3 months and hope that enough players join in to send a clear message to the developers.
I doubt, however, that it will make a difference, as currently, there is little that can challenge the dominance of Dead by Daylight.
But maybe it will work and the developers will wake up. It would be best for the community and best for the game. But perhaps not for the balance sheets of the developers and publishers.
