Earlier today, Dead by Daylight debuted a fifth-anniversary stream, bringing fans together to celebrate how much the game has achieved since its debut back in 2016. Alongside highlighting the title's most prominent streamers and revealing that Leon Kennedy, Jill Valentine, Nemesis, and the Raccoon City Police Department will be joining the game as part of its Resident Evil chapter, the broadcast also offered a better look at what's coming next.
Following the slate of Resident Evil reveals, Dead by Daylight producer Aurelie Gerault and Product Manager Justin Banks detailed a rough Year 6 roadmap, discussing everything from killers and survivors to totems and events. It appears the game is going to get a wealth of additions over the next year, with Behaviour Interactive promising tons of content.
The biggest two announcements to come from the segment were that four killers and five survivors are slated to make their way to the game. As fans found out earlier, one of these killers will be Resident Evil 3's Nemesis and two of the survivors will be Leon Kennedy and Jill Valentine. The other three killers and survivors will be revealed as subsequent chapters release, with Gerault joking that they're "top secret." There will also be two maps coming this year, with one now revealed to be the Raccoon City Police Department. It was shown off earlier in the stream and is a near-identical recreation of the map from the Resident Evil 2 remake.
Four new tomes are also coming, containing additional lore for the game's killers and survivors. Banks claims that establishing the story behind the game's universe is a significant part of the team's plans, stating that "the lore in Dead by Daylight is rich and we want to be able to show as much of it as we can." Events will continue to be a big part of the game's future too, with Banks confirming that Dead by Daylight will get another significant Halloween event. He also hints at smaller events that Behaviour Interactive intends to create content for.
Finally, the pair detail the "four pillars" the studio wants to focus on this year, with each centered on improving a different aspect of Dead by Daylight's fundamental systems. First Steps Into The Fog kicks off the four and focuses on offering first-time players an accessible entry point. It includes improving tutorials, adding bot matches, and implementing an auto-ban feature.
The second pillar is Game Health, which will center on fixing bugs. Gérault claims this will include working on stabilization and how exploitable the game is. The third is The Realm Beyond, which is an ongoing project focused on overhauling the game's visuals, and the fourth is Live Design, which will entail tweaking the game's current mechanics to keep players invested.
Dead by Daylight is available now on Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.