Highlights

  • Dead by Daylight has the longest lifespan among asymmetrical horror multiplayer games due to its consistent output of updates and DLC for almost eight years.
  • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate had a crossover problem with too many characters, causing some to be overshadowed. Dead by Daylight may be experiencing a similar issue as it introduces more crossover content.
  • Dead by Daylight currently has a significant number of crossover characters, with almost half of each roster being made up of crossovers. This may lead to difficulty in balancing and potential neglect of certain characters.

It's no easy feat to keep a live-service game going for a year, let alone almost eight, but somehow Dead by Daylight is about to do just that. Released all the way back in 2016, Dead by Daylight may not be perfect, but it's the longest-surviving asymmetrical horror multiplayer game out there. One core thing that sets Dead by Daylight apart from its competition that have all come and gone in the last few years is Behaviour Interactive's consistent output of updates and DLC Chapters, with new content coming to the game every few months.

Beginning just two months after the game's original release, Dead by Daylight has received a consistent stream of DLC every few months for almost eight years now. While all of that content has kept players coming back time and time again, it does bring up a potential issue, one that pervaded Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and one that could easily start affecting Dead by Daylight, if it hasn't already.

Alan Wake Resident Evil Dead by Daylight
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Dead by Daylight Should Take a Resident Evil Approach With Its Alan Wake 2 Content

Dead by Daylight has just added Alan Wake as a Survivor and while that representation is great there's a lot more Behaviour could do with the license.

Dead by Daylight Could Already Be Suffering From Crossover Bloat

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Had a Crossover Problem

The entire gimmick of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was that it included every fighter that had ever been in a Smash Bros. game, bringing them all together under one roof. This meant that from the get-go, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate had a total of 82 fully playable fighters in its base game. Already, this is more than enough characters for a fighting game, and some characters were always going to get a bit lost in the mix. This is especially true as Smash Bros. Ultimate focuses on crossover fighters, which means that some lesser-known crossovers are usually going to fall by the wayside anyway.

This issue only became more apparent with the addition of post-launch DLC. Over the course of the next few years, Super Smash Bros. UItimate added another 12 crossover fighters. Of course, the iconicity of some of these characters was far greater than some others, with fighters like Sephiroth, Steve, and Sora all being characters that fans had been asking to see in the franchise for years. This led to some DLC characters overshadowing others. While Super Smash Bros. Ultimate currently features one of the most impressive rosters in all of gaming, it does still feel a tad bloated, with the game now having a ton of characters that don't often get picked.

Dead by Daylight Could Be Suffering This Same Crossover Issue

The first Dead by Daylight crossover happened all the way back in October 2016 when Halloween's Michael Myers came to the game, and since then, it's remained a staple of the Dead by Daylight DLC cycle. Recently, Dead by Daylight has seen some of its best crossovers ever come to the game, with Alien, Child's Play, and now its Alan Wake crossovers all adding some excellent Survivors, Killers, and Perks to the game. However, crossover bloat might already be starting to creep into Dead by Daylight.

Dead by Daylight currently has a total of 12 crossover Killers, and a total of 13 crossover Survivors. That's almost half of each roster taken up by crossover characters. While there wouldn't be too much of an issue with that normally, some of Dead by Daylight's crossover characters do feel a tad neglected nowadays, with Killers like Freddy Krueger and Saw's Pig being some of the least popular to play due to their lack of any recent updates. The more crossover characters come to Dead by Daylight, the harder it's going to be for Behaviour to continue balancing them all, and the more likely they are to start to feel worthless.