Back in June, players got their hands on Dead by Daylight's second official video game crossover, with the world of Resident Evil making its way to the asymmetric multiplayer experience. Now fans have had a good few weeks exploring the Racoon City Police Department, it seems Behaviour Interactive is setting up what's coming next, and it's already caused a lot of speculation among the Dead by Daylight community.
Posted on the game's official social media accounts, the first tease for Chapter 21 is live, showing off a 16-second clip of a flickering TV set. The trailer begins with the television turning on, showing static and an obscured image before it's switched off and the Dead by Daylight title card fills the screen.
Although the teaser doesn't off much to go on, fans immediately got to work deciphering the cryptic footage, coming up with several theories as to what the next add-on's theme could be. Most seem to think it's teasing a new crossover, with both Hellraiser and Five Nights at Freddy's being the two main guesses.
In terms of the former, many suggest that the teaser is a reference to a scene from the original Hellraiser, where protagonist Kirsty sees a flickering TV screen with a blooming red flower moments before Pinhead and his Cenobite allies emerge from hell. The obscured image on the screen also resembles the red flower, while the numbers "19.87" in the TV's top right-hand corner could refer to the first Hellraiser's release in 1987.
On the other hand, Five Nights at Freddy's fans have pointed out that the TV screen could be referencing the series' various surveillance systems. Others have suggested that the 19.87 might hint towards The Bite of 87, which is an important event in the franchise's timeline.
Other theories have pointed towards the likes of Poltergeist and even The Ring, so fans definitely have a few ideas about where Dead by Daylight could be heading next. As with most of the game's teasers, it likely won't be too long until they find out whether they're running from Pinhead, Springtrap, or a completely original killer. In the meantime, players are still digging into the game's latest chapter, which added an array of iconic Resident Evil characters to the roster. Alongside getting to play as Nemesis and use his various bioweapons abilities, the DLC added non-playable enemies for the first time, with the killer being joined by AI zombies that roam the map.
Dead by Daylight is out now on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and mobile devices.