Horror survival video games aren’t usually associated with magnanimous efforts, but Behaviour Interactive’s Dead by Daylight has broken the mold after having raised over $500,000 for charity.
In Dead by Daylight, four players take on the role of Survivors trying to escape from the Killer, who is controlled by a fifth player. The Survivors each have different perks that will help them stay alive, but the Killers also come with a range of skills to make it easier to hunt down their targets. The Killers in Dead by Daylight include iconic characters from horror movies, namely Michael Myers from Halloween, Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street, and The Pig from Saw.
The game also has a heart, and not just of the kind that the Killers rip out of their victims. In 2017, Behaviour Interactive launched the Charity Case DLC, which is a collection of 26 in-game cosmetic items that the developer made in collaboration with Dead by Daylight content creators. Initially only available for the PC version of the game on Steam, the DLC was created for the benefit of the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, which is a global nonprofit organization that awards grants to scientific research focused on mental illness.
Behaviour Interactive, which donates all of the revenue from Dead by Daylight‘s Charity Case, revealed in a post on the game’s official forums that players have collectively donated over $500,000 to the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation through the DLC.
“From the bottom of our heart, we would like to thank you for your generosity,” wrote Behaviour Interactive in the forum post. “Thank you all for lending your brand to such a good cause!” the developer added, referring to the Twitch streamers they worked with for the DLC.
The Dead by Daylight Charity Case will likely raise even more money in the near future, as Behaviour Interactive also announced that the DLC is now available for the PlayStation 4 in North America and Japan and on the Xbox One. It is not yet available for PlayStation 4 players in Europe, but the developer said that it is working on it.
Behaviour Interactive is currently testing the tenth chapter of Dead by Daylight, titled Darkness Among Us. The expansion will feature The Ormond Slopes Resort as the new map, Jeff Johansen as the new Survivor, and The Legion as the new Killer.